
• -.^'..A^-,.- -f>. 












» w'- .^'•■'•••> ■ ■ 










M^-^' 












■■■.:■■ ,'■;•«: ;', 



l':'' 


* ' ■ '■ '' v/ 






*!''■ '' 


,-<^;.v - '" 




' "v • 




■ > . • ' 




'-''JV ■ ■ 


c>; 


■ .V- 


V-. 


"i'^v'"- ' 


.^■. I 


'5«'. ,: '>;-, 


' ■ 


■ •'-. ':.^% 



*Vfy, 



-V^'*-.^"'- 

.-^^^•t- 

.::^^:# 







FIVE MONTHS' FINE WEATHER 



IN 



CANADA, WESTERN U.S., AND MEXICO. 



c 



v 



^ FIVE MONTHS' FINE WEATHER 

IN 

CANADA, WESTERN, U.S. AND MEXICO. 



On Saturday morning, nth August, 1888, after a 
wonderfully quick passage, we found ourselves so close 
to New York, that we were almost certain to land in the 
evening, and, with the exception of a solitary croaker, 
who had prophesied misfortunes of all kinds ever since 
we left Queenstown, all the passengers packed their 
trunks, put on their best clothes, and prepared joyfully 
for land. However, the croaker was right this time. 
As we were sitting on deck after lunch, suddenly there 
was a horrible noise, and we were covered with soot and 
steam. The spindle to the high-pressure cylinder valve 
had broken inside the crossheads ! 

One's first idea was naturally that the poor fellows in 
the engine-room must be terribly scalded and knocked 
about, but happily no one was injured. That fear re- 
lieved, we could feel the bitter disappointment of the 
delay. Not only must we spend another dreary night 
in the stuffy cabins, but no doubt we should lose the 
race we were running with the new much vaunted Ct'ty 
of New York, and anyhow, we had lost the glory of 
making the fastest passage on record. 

B 



2 Five Months Fine Weather 

A beautiful French steamer of the Transatlantique 
line passed and jeeringly offered to tow us in. Next 
day we saw with great satisfaction that she had not 
arrived in time to land her passengers in the evening, 
and when we learnt that the City of Nezo York had 
done very badly, we felt almost consoled ; but it was a 
very dull afternoon. A canary flew out from New York 
to welcome us, and a big fish swam about close to the 
ship for a long time, some said it was a shark, and some 
said it was a sturgeon. 

The engines were got to work again after four hours' 
dela}--, and the run after dark was very interesting as we 
passed the immense hotels and tea-gardens in Coney 
Island and other favourite resorts, flaring with gas and 
electric lights. An American charged us strictly not to 
omit visiting West Brighton in the mornirfg, when we 
should see " hundreds of thousands of men, women, 
children, cats, dogs, and other living creatures all bathing 
together." The Elephant Hotel was just distinguish- 
able by its curious shape. 

We stopped outside Sandy Hook for the night, and 
next morning at six o'clock we were all up, dressed, 
and breakfasting, eager to see the new world. 

The harbour of New York is exceedingly pretty ; the 
Unibria seemed to be going all the way to the hotel, we 
passed so far up the river. The statue of " Liberty," by 
(K Birtholdi, is very effective, the position is so fine, facing 
down the harbour as if welcoming the new comers. I 
suppose the design was not taken from the frontispiece 
of Truth, but it looks very like it — the lines are too 



in Canada, Western U.S.^ and JMexico. 3 

straight, and the pedestal too large and heavy. The 
saying current at the time of its presentation to America 
by the French nation came to one's mind : " All the 
liberty France ever had she gave to America." 

Immediately after breakfast, the Custom's officer came 
on board, and took up his position in the dining-saloon. 
Everybody had to pass before him and sign a declara- 
tion he had nothing liable to duty. I noted that one 
gentleman declared two bottles of whisky and 150 
cigars, and was allowed to take them in free. The 
whole business of disembarking was very wearisome, 
not the less so because of the heavy rain that fell all 
the morning. However, we were agreeably surprised 
with the Custom's House. We had been told over and 
over again that the officers were rude and rough, and 
did their best to annoy the traveller, often upsetting all 
his goods on to the ground, and leaving him to re-pack 
as best he might ; while ladies spoke of heavy charges 
on old clothes, on the pretext that they were new. It 
used to be the rule to bribe the officials, but new men 
had been lately appointed on purpose to stop it, and 
should any one offer a bribe to one of these, the con- 
sequences would be serious. We had made up our 
mind not to bribe, as a few hours' delay at the docks 
would be better than a few weeks in New York, should 
we hit upon the wrong man. 

When, after weary waiting, our turn came, we found 
a very gentlemanly, quiet-mannered person, who did 
not look in the least bribable. He examined every- 
thing most minutely, opening with special interest an)' 

ii 2 



4 Five M 071 tils' Fine Weather 

parcel, such as a bit of needlework or a io^w gloves 
wrapped in paper, even looking into a tiny parcel con- 
taining net for veils, which could have hardly covered 
any contraband goods ; but whatever he touched he 
replaced, and at the end, he kindly helped us to lock up 
and strap our trunks. Of course the journey before us 
did not require new clothes or finery of any kind. 

There is one point I was never able to clear up, as 
everybody told a different tale, viz. : do diamonds pay 
duty when unquestionably private property .-' I was 
particularly asked what I had, but I had absolutely 
none, not even a ring. Some ladies put on their jewel- 
lery under their cloaks, and I noticed a gentleman with 
a magnificent solitaire in his rough tie, the only diamond 
out of place that caught my eye in America, where I 
was told everybody wore them all day long. A few 
years ago a gentleman I knew took over one brooch, 
and had to pay 170 dollars duty, although it was for a 
present ; but lately an American dealer is said to have 
passed a quantity free, simply by taking the precaution 
of having a monogram stamped on each case, which 
was taken to show private ownership. 

I saw a Custom's officer unfasten and examine a few 
sticks and umbrellas tied together, perhaps six in all, 
and another furious at having to spend the morning 
finding out the exact sum a lady had to pay on two fans 
she had brought from Paris to give to her daughters. 

At last we were free, and got into a landau, which is 
probably the oldest article in America, so dilapidated 
was it ; windows shattered, doors broken, lamps gone, 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 5 

and lining in tatters. The New York roads were 
worthy of it, such holes, such bumping, and thumping", 
and shaking. We arrived at the Windsor Hotel about 
10.30 a.m. 

It must be to this landing on Sunday that is owing 
the wonderful luck that attended us through our 
journey. We had almost perpetual fine weather, and 
where storms did occur, they always seemed to be 
arranged for our advantage, as the heavy rain at Mon- 
treal, which filled the Lachine Rapids and the Mont- 
morenci Falls, near Quebec, and the snowstorm which 
delayed the Denver and Rio Grande train just long 
enough to enable us to enjoy the whole of the grand 
scenery in full daylight. 

After Edward had gone round presenting some letters 
of introduction, and making arrangements for our on- 
ward progress, he returned to the hotel for me, and we 
spent the short time we had in New York in seeing as 
much as we could. We went first to the top of the tower 
of the Produce Market, fourteen stories high. Of course 
there is an elevator. The view is glorious — all New 
York, the harbour, the statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn 
Bridge, the two rivers, everything is visible from this 
tower, and New York looks far better from there than 
from the level. 

The streets are dirty and badly paved, the shops 
have no smart appearance, the elevated railway is un- 
sightly, and the whole place covered with telegraph and 
telephone wires, just like great cobwebs, except for the 
rough poles at every corner leaning all ways, so that 



6 Five Months Fine Weather 

one feels disappointed with New York, except as seen 
from the tower. Of course I only speak of the first 
impression.- There are some very fine buildings in the 
commercial part of the city, and some handsome 
churches, but the whole effect is shabby — the elevated 
railroad is a hideous disfigurement ; it is built dowai 
the middle of the street, mostly on trestles or columns, 
so that cinders from the engine, or anything dropping 
from the trains may fall on to the heads of the 
passengers below. 

New York " licks creation " in hotels. The Windsor 
Hotel far surpasses any I know in Europe, for the 
comfort and elegance of the apartments, the luxury of 
the table and, what is very rare in America, the quick 
service. The universal weak point is the w^ashing 
apparatus. Of course it is not always possible to 
secure a room with a bath, and then the arrangement 
of the tiny basin with the two taps over it is madden- 
ing. One keeps knocking one's head against the taps> 
and any incautious movement of the sponge catches 
the chain which holds the plug, and all the water dis- 
appears. The theory of hot water conveyed to every 
room is delightful, but in practice one generally has to 
let both taps run for half an hour before one discovers 
which is the hot water tap. 

We found .acceptable accommodation all over the 
States and Canada with hardly any exceptions, that is, 
good according to the American style, clean, comfort- 
able bedrooms, and meals better than one could expect 
in towns only a {q\\ years old. The service always bad, 



in Canada^ Western U.S.^ and Mexico. 7 

and the hotel people, always disobliging. The meals 
are at stated hours, and while it is' impossible to get 
breakfast at the early hour promised, it is equally 
impossible to get' dinner a moment after the fixed 
time. The cook goes home, and the manager himself 
cannot keep him. I often wondered what an invalid 
would do in an American hotel. What we most dis- 
liked was the waste of time at meals. When we had 
examined the lengthy menu, and chosen our food, we 
had to wait half an hour until it was cooked. Then 
everything came on together, and was piled around us. 
My soup, fish, meat, potato, everything on its tiny 
dish, in a circle round the one plate that was meant to 
serve for the whole dinner, and Edward's portion in 
tiny dishes round his plate. Of course things got cold. 
The great want in American hotels which is much 
felt by Europeans is the omniscient porter of con- 
tinental Europe, or the friendly landlord of English 
inns. The guide-books are very poor things, the waiters 
are generally strangers, so there is no means of obtain- 
ing information. The American landlord is rarely 
seen; we saw him occasionally, and found him a curious 
creature. He is delighted to discuss the weather or 
politics with you, but if you ask a question as to how 
best to visit the neighbourhood or the price of carriages 
or anything connected with his business, his dignity is 
up in arms at once. He considers himself a gentleman, 
and you want to treat him as if he were a hireling. As 
for the clerks at the hotel offices, they are proverbial 
for impertinence even in America. 



S ' Five Months' Fine Weather 

The following- is a specimen of their manners. Our 
h"nen had returned from the laundress, and an important 
piece was missing, so Edward went to the office and 
asked the clerk to make inquiry. " You must have 
counted wrong," said the clerk ; " nobody wants your 
things." This was in one of the best and oldest 
established hotels in the States. 

Tiicsday, August i^th. — We went on board the 
Hudson River steamer at 9 am. for Albany. We 
would gladly have rested and seen a little more of New 
York, but everybody said we must reach the Yellow- 
stone Park not later than the beginning of September, 
and we had much to do before then. 

On going on board, we deposited our hand-baggage 
in a parcel office in the steamer. Hand-baggage is a 
very important article on America, for you are never 
sure when you will see your trunks again. The first 
lesson the traveller learns is that he is the last person 
whose convenience is to be considered. If the station- 
master or the carrier does not feel inclined to worry 
about the luggage that evening, though it may cause 
you to lose your train next day, there is nothing to be 
done. So it is wise always to have a few things in a 
" grip." which is the American for hand-bag, and as 
there are no porters at the stations, you have to carry 
it yourself, so you must not have it heavy. The steamer 
was very large and luxurious, with comfortable seats, 
and we had a lovely day on the river, which is very 
wide and beautiful in its way, but not the least like the 
Rhine, as New Yorkers fondly igiagine. The size of 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. g 

the river is impressive, the handsome residences near 
the city look very attractive, further on the Palisades 
are both curious and beautiful, then come the pretty 
towns nestling- at the foot of the cliffs, and the Catskill 
mountains in the background. 

An excellent lunch made us still more contented. It 
was our first experience of negro waiters, who are better 
than any others when well trained. They move about 
as quietly and as gracefully as cats. Some of the large 
establishments must choose them for their looks, as I 
never saw a good-looking negro anywhere else. One 
or two of the waiters on the steamer were splendid men 
with no trace of negro features except their skins, 
which were black as coal, and seemed to have been 
beautifully polished. They really look as if they 
blacked themselves like boots instead of washing, the 
gloss on them was so bright. White and black men 
are never seen working together as waiters, either all 
are negios or all white. At the conclusion of our meal, 
we tipped our waiter, who evidently did not expect 
anything, and some Americans at the same table 
reproved us for so doing, but everywhere else we found 
the waiters as anxious for tips as any German, and 
the bell-boys especially tiresome. The bell-boy is a 
functionary whose duty it is to answer the bells and 
transmit the orders to the waiter, chambermaid, or 
whatever servant's service you require. 

It may prove useful to some if I give the result of 
our experience. It is no good tipping any one unless 
the traveller means to make some stay in an hotel ; 



10 Five Months' Fine Weather 

Then he should tip the head waiter to give him the 
same seat at every meal. After that, he must square 
the waiter in charge of his table. Table d'hote is always 
served at tables accommodating from four to ten people. 
In that way he will secure attention, and earlier comers 
will be kept waiting until he is served. 

We arrived at Albany at 6.10 p.m., and took the train 
at once to Saratoga, where we arrived at 8 o'clock, 
and walked across the street from the station to the 
monster United States Hotel just opposite. It is built 
round a large garden, and contains 916 rooms. We 
expected to see great magnificence of dress and ex- 
travagance generally, and were disappointed to see a 
very common, dull-looking set of people. The prin- 
cipal beaux of the place seemed to be the hotel clerks. 
As we left very early next morning, we saw nothing 
more of the place except the pretty main street with its 
big trees. Our small bedroom, with bath, on the fourth 
storey, tea, and breakfast, cost ten dollars. 

Wednesday, August i^th, was a hard day. We left 
Saratoga at 8.20 a.m., and arrived at Caldwell, on Lake 
George, about 9. We did not leave Caldwell until 
past 10 o'clock, instead of 9.40, and were, in conse- 
quence, late all day. We spent four hours zigzagging 
from side to side of Lake George, landing one passenger 
here, and taking off another there, sometimes crossing 
the lake only to deliver a case of mineral waters. Sara- 
toga was a dreary-looking pleasure-resort, but Lake 
George is charming. The English element in the 
American character has discovered this healthy out- 



in Canada, JVeslern i/.S., and lilexico. ii 

door fashion of holiday making. The lake is full of 
little islands, and on them and on the side of the lake, 
people camp out in tents, regardless of mosquitoes, do 
for themselves with the help of canned foods of all 
kinds, and spend the summer days boating, playing 
tennis, fishing, flirting, and generally enjoying them- 
selves. At some points there were small, rough hotels, 
and at every landing there was a merry crowd greeting 
the coming and speeding the parting guests, and shout- 
ing jokes as long as the steamer was within hail. 

Unfortunately, the scenery, though pretty, is mono- 
tonous, and we were very glad when we got to the end 
and took the train to Fort Ticonderaga, where we joined 
the steamer for Plattsburgh. Lake Champlain is more 
beautiful, as well as much larger than Lake George. 
The shores are sometimes flat and cultivated, sometimes 
rocky and hilly, but always there are the beautiful 
Adirondack mountains in the distance. The weather 
was changeable and threatening, which improved the 
scenery by the lovely variations of colour and cloud 
effects. 

Both steamers were very comfortable. We had no 
time for supper at Plattsburgh, where we took the train 
again and arrived at Montreal about ii p.m., after a 
shaky run, very tired and thirsty. The customs' exa- 
mination at the Canadian frontier was nothing. 

The Windsor Hotel at Montreal is large and hand- 
some, with good rooms, but wretched food and service. 
It faces on to the square and the new Roman Catholic 
cathedral built on the model of St, Peter's at Rome. 



1 2 Five Months Fine Weather 

It rained incessantly the two days we were in 
Montreal, with occasional thunderstorms, so that, but 
for the great kindness of our fellow-traveller on the 
Umbria, Sir Donald Smith, we should have seen nothing 
of the place ; but he sent his brougham, notwithstanding 
the deluge, to take us round the town and the favourite 
Montreal recreation-grounds, the cemeteries, which are 
certainly unusually large and elegant. The drive is 
called "Around the Mountain," and most of it was 
through the Protestant cemetery. The driver regretted 
we did not allow him to take us through the Roman 
Catholic cemetery, which, he said, was much larger, but 
we had seen as many tombstones as we cared for. At 
last we reached the view which, even in the rain, was 
very fine — all Montreal, with the big Victoria Bridge, 
and as far away over the plains as the mist and clouds 
would permit. 

Sir Donald also asked us to dine with him at no less 
than 1 1 57, Dorchester Street, where he has built a beau- 
tiful house, fitted up with American woods which ought 
to be better known here, the colours are so pleasing. Sir 
Donald showed us his magnificent picture-gallery, where 
he has a fine Turner, a Millais, a Boughton, two large 
M'Whirters, and many very valuable old masters. 'But 
his great pride is his matchless collection of ancient 
Japanese porcelain and curios, of which we only saw a 
{g.\\, as they were not yet arranged. The collection was 
formed by an Englishman who lived many years in 
Japan. He died recently, and his wife would only sell 
the collection as a whole, and, though many had the will. 



in Canada^ Weste^'n U.S., and Mexico. 13 

only Sir Donald had the power to buy such a prize ; 
and still people have been heard to say that wealth 
does not add to one's happiness ! 

Next day we drove in pouring rain, still enjoying Sir 
Donald's brougham, to Lachine, but while we waited for 
the steamer, the rain cleared ofif, and we had a splendid 
run down the rapids, which are curious, but not so 
exciting as we expected from the picture on the ad- 
vertisement, which represents a Red Indian pilot in full 
war-paint steering through rocks which barely afford 
room for the steamer to go through them, while billows 
mountains high threaten to overwhelm her. Now there 
was nolndian pilot, no billows to speak of, and ap- 
parently no particular danger to any one who knew the 
road. 

On reaching Montreal, we were transferred to the 
comfortable s.s. Quebec, and started at once for that 
city. The scenery looked very lovely in the gorgeous 
sunset, and in the bright starlight night. We met a 
Montreal acquaintance on board, who said, as every one 
says, that the French element in Eastern Canada grows 
stronger daily. The employers of labour have much 
difficulty with the French workpeople, who are Roman 
Catholics, and keep too many religious holidays. We 
noticed that everybody in the streets seemed to be 
speaking French, and several men we spoke to could 
not understand English. 

Saturday, August i^tk. — Up at 5.30 to see the fine 
approach to Quebec, which is called Kebec by the 
natives. It was a splendid day, with baking sunshine 



14 Five Months' Fine Weather 

and a refreshing breeze. The town is on a steep cHff, 
with steps for streets. We ascended in an elevator, and 
after rushing first to Dufferin Terrace, which overhangs 
the St. Lawrence river, for the view, we went to the St. 
Louis Hotel for breakfast, and then took a carriage and 
drove the round of the sights of Quebec. The roads are 
equal to those of New York and Montreal, that is, they 
are disgraceful. First we went to the Citadel, where we 
found Lord Stanley taking his morning walk on the 
terrace, which is said to have the finest view in 
America. I should say from our experience it is the 
only one of its kind — so peaceful and civilized. It is 
very lovely ; but it is a great thing to say that it is the 
most lovely in the land of the Yosemite and Niagara. 

Lord Stanley was amused at my disappointment on 
finding Canada so French. He thinks that the French 
element is overpowering the English in the eastern 
provinces, but that it is because the English go west, 
where there are better opportunities for men of energy. 
He thinks the trade of the country is not diminish- 
ing, but is changing. From the Citadel we drove to 
the Plains of Abraham, passing the beautiful new Par- 
liament buildings and many splendid Roman Catholic 
churches by the way. There is nothing to see at the 
Plains of Abraham, except a cricket-ground, a jail, and 
a wretched monument to Wolfe, so we hurried away 
over some queer roads and down break-neck hills, 
through the town, and along a good country road to the 
falls of Montmorency, which are ninety feet higher than 
Niagara. There is a steep staircase, or rather, series of 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Illexico. 15 

ladders, down the cliffs opposite the falls. I struggled 
down to the first landing-place, whence I could see the 
rainbows on the spray. Edward went to the bottom to 
look up at the falls. There is nothing in Europe to 
equal them. There was abundance of water, owing to 
the recent heavy rains, but occasionally there is hardly 
any. Some ladies told me they had seen them almost 
dry. It was lucky I spoke to these ladies, for they told 
us to be sure to visit the Natural Steps. The drivers 
always try to avoid the extra journey, and assure the 
unwary that there is nothing worth seeing. Our driver 
was very loath to take us, but we insisted on going 
there, and were well rewarded, though there was a long, 
rough walk and a steep scramble through a wood to 
get to the Steps, which reminded us of the Strid at 
Bolton, but magnified and glorified. The stream flows 
through a rocky gorge, and its bed really is a succession 
of long steps. It is a brown stream, and appears to 
be full of gold dust, which turned out on examination 
to be sawdust from timber cutting up-stream. Such is 
the effect of sunshine. After rambling about for some 
time, we went back to the Point Levis Station, on the 
south side of the St. Lawrence, and took train back to 
Montreal, where we supped at the hotel, and then went 
back to the station, expecting to get at once into our 
sleeping-berths, which had been engaged beforehand, in 
the Montreal Pulman car. We found that some one 
else had got them. Of course he had not bribed the 
conductor — all conductors are immaculate — but we had 
to tramp about the station for more than an hour until 



1 6 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

the train came in with the Boston car, where happily 
we got two lower berths, and made our first night's 
journey in a Pulman sleeping-car — not much sleep, so 
we were not sorry to be turned out at Kingston Junc- 
tion at 5.30 a.m., but we were horrified to find that there 
was no boat ready to take us to the Thousand Islands, 
and no breakfast to be had. We had a short train 
journey to Kingston itself, where we roamed about in a 
famishing condition until the official who sells the 
steamer tickets took pity on us, and gave us some of 
the coffee he keeps for the workmen, for he is a 
temperance worker, and wisely gave the men coffee to 
keep them off beer. A man had carried our rugs, &c., 
to the boat, and as Edward was asking the ticket-seller 
what he ought to give him for it, a voice in the back- 
ground called out, " Give him what you'd give him in 
Yorkshire; you come from Leeds or thereabouts, I 
know." We turned, and saw a stout party, who said he 
came from Bradford, but unfortunately he took another 
boat, and so we saw him no more. It was not an 
interesting journey until we reached the islands in about 
an hour and a half. After that, it was very pretty, but 
monotonous. The islands are of all sizes, from tiny rocks 
to quite important islands with several large houses and 
parks, still far too small for sport of any kind ; and as 
the river is rather dangerous for boating, with occasional 
rapids, it must be very monotonous living on an island. 
We arrived at Alexandria Bay about noon, and took 
up our quarters at the Thousand Islands House, a very 
good hotel, where there were some very fine men among 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. i 7 

the black servants. One, I think, was the handsomest 
man I ever saw ; he was very tall and splendidly pro- 
portioned, had perfectly regular features, and was as 
black as night. I should have liked to bring that man 
home for a footman, but probably English servants would 
not like to have a negro among them. No American 
ever sits down to meat with a coloured man. At the 
railway dining-rooms there is a separate table for the 
black men, and if there are any Chinese, there is another 
table for them. The conductors generally sit among 
the passengers, who w^ould be thought absurdly arrogant 
if they objected. I should often have preferred our 
coloured brethren, for the railway conductor, though 
sometimes extremely kind and pleasant, is often insolent. 
I took the address of the head waiter at the Thousand 
Islands House, meaning to visit his shop in New York. 
He was a wonderful manager. I never saw such per- 
fection of waiting as at this hotel. He gave directions 
by signs, and the rapidity and graceful movements of 
these waiters were charming. They carried heavily- 
laden trays on one hand high above their heads. I 
watched with great interest, expecting to see collisions 
between going and coming waiters, but everything went 
as smoothly as if by clockwork. I never saw a black 
woman-servant, except once, in the whole of our journey. 
After dinner, Edward took a boat, and went to present 
his letter of introduction to Mr. Pulman, who lives close 
by, in a house costing 50,000 dollars, which he has built 
on an island he bought for 40 dollars twenty-five years 
agO;, before fashion had discovered the Thousand 

C 



1 8 Five Monilis Fine Weather 

Islands, He kindly showed Edward over his house, 
and gave him a letter to his firm at Pulman Town, 
where his works are. 

Monday^ August 20th. — We were called at six, and 
started by the 8 o'clock steamer for Gananoque, 
We found afterwards that there were two other boats 
later in the morning, but all the hotel people assured us 
the 8 o'clock was the only boat. We had to wait five 
hours at Gananoque, v/ith nothing to do but eat a bad 
dinner and watch some magnificent butterflies, and 
crickets, that looked like butterflies when flying. I 
heard afterwards these were katydids. They make a 
loud noise when flying. At last the steamer called for 
us and took us back to Kingston by the other side of 
the river. At one stopping-place, where there was an 
enormous hotel, we saw a little boat containing two 
people, completely overturned by the wind suddenly 
catching the sail. Of course there was a rush of other 
boats to the rescue, but they were barely in time. I 
should not like to stay here, it seems as if such accidents 
must be frequent. There is a strong main current and 
numbers of cross currents and windy corners, and every- 
body does without professional help. We took the 
boat train to Kingston-junction, and the 3.32 train to 
Toronto, where we arrived at 10.45 P-m., and found a 
comfortable room at the Queen's Hotel. Next day we 
walked and trammed round Toronto, which is a very 
handsome, prosperous town. We sought diligently for 
the magnificent parliament buildings, whose photograph 
was in every shop window, and only discovered late in 



///. Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 19 

the day that they were not yet built. We took the 
5 o'clock train, arriving at Niagara about 8.15, and took 
the bus to Clifton House Hotel, on the Canadian side, a 
long way from the station, and directly opposite the 
falls. I shut my eyes all the time we were driving, not to 
catch any glimpse of them on the way, as I wanted to 
see the full glory at once. I do not know why Niagara 
should be more to me than any other fine sight, but so 
it was. I do not think a glimpse of Paradise would fill 
me with greater awe and enthusiasm, and still it kept 
recurring to me how roany people had said the first 
sight of Niagara disappointed them, I have heard many 
say so. When at last I saw it shining in the brilliant 
moonlight, the whole extent visible from our bedroom 
balcony, I felt that nothing mortal could equal the glory 
of it, the loveliness and the power, and the fulness of 
content it seems to put into one's heart. Here at last is 
something without weakness or failing, perfectly beau- 
tiful, resistlessly strong, the roar of the waters musical 
and satisfying. It was delicious to wake in the night 
and hear the roar. 

In the morning we took a carriage and drove first to 
the rapids, admiring the Cantilever Bridge on the way. 
The immediate vicinity of the falls, both on the Ameri- 
can and the Canadian side is public property, but below 
the bridge everything is enclosed, and has to be paid 
for. 

A rather dangerous-looking elevator takes one down 
to the rapids, where there is a long promenade close to 
the water. This is the place where poor Captain Webb 

C 2 ^ 



20 Five Months Fine Weather 

was last seen alive. The pace is tremendous, and the 
big waves, or rather upheavals of water, stand far above 
the general level. It is a marvellous sight ! 

From the rapids we drove over the Suspension 
Bridge to the whirlpool. We ought to have seen this 
from the Canadian side, but our driver had different 
interests from ours, so he took us to the American side, 
where there is no elevator, and we had a dreadful pull 
down and up the i8o steps. The whirlpool, from that 
side, is decidedly disappointing. Then we drove to 
the top of the American Falls, where everything has 
been done to assist visitors. Railings have been put 
close to the edge, so that one can lean quite over the 
falls, and looks through the lovely green water and 
watch it take its great leap. 

Our great adventure was passing through the Cave 
of the Winds. First we had to take off all our own 
clothes and put on special flannel suits and macintosh 
hoods, long jackets and trousers, and rough boots and 
stockings, both alike, so that we were comical-looking 
objects. Then we went down a long winding staircase 
in a tower to the foot of the falls. From here a guide 
led us and two gentlemen along wooden platforms and 
up and down little stairs, scrambling over rocks, 
drenched by spray and mixed up with rainbows, making 
desperate efforts all the while to look at the immense 
falls which were thundering in our ears. At last we 
got round to the other side of the first part of the falls, 
of course comparatively a small part, but bigger than all 
the Swiss wasscrfalls put together. 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico, 21 

Then comes the tug of war ! the guide disappears 
behind the water, and you dash in after him and find 
yourself scrambhng along the side of the rock, no path, 
no rope, nothing but a little ledge up and down any- 
how. It is impossible to see, or hear, or even breathe, 
for the spray and wind and noise of the cataract which 
thunders past close to your head, and you cannot stop 
to admire for fear your breath will not hold out. I was 
quite happy, but then I had the assistance of the guide. 
Poor Edward was dreadfully upset. About half-waj' 
through, there is a drop of about three feet or more, and 
when he saw me go down this, he thought I had gone for 
good. He could not get his breath for some time after 
we came out. 

We heard afterwards that this really is a very dan- 
gerous adventure, and many lives have been lost. A 
lady fell last year, and was never seen again. It was 
supposed she was jammed amongst the rocks at the foot 
of the falls, but these accidents are not put into the 
newspapers to frighten people and spoil trade. It is 
certainly quite unfit for any one with the slightest weak- 
ness of the heart, lungs, or nerves, but for strong people 
it is a queer experience well worth the trouble, and 
reminded me of the delightful sensation out hunting 
when one faces a fence one is not quite sure one will get 
over. 

From the cave we drove to the Three Sisters Islands 
to see the rapids above the falls, and then through 
Prospect Park, and over the other Suspension Bridge 
back to the hotel. 



2 2 Five Months' Fine Weather 

After early dinner, we walked along the Canadian 
side to Prospect Point, where Table Rock formerly- 
stood, and where was the old Cave of the Winds, 
associated with Professor TyndaFs name. Here there 
was no cataract to pass under, and come out the other 
side, but a kind of path under the main fall, and each 
person went as far as his powers allowed. Professor 
Tyndal going further than any one else. Now only a 
short piece of the beginning of the path remains. We 
went down to it by the elevator, and walked most of the 
way, when to our amazement we saw some gentlemen 
in complete macintosh suits solemnly do the five or six 
yards good^path with a little spray falling over them, 
evidently thinking they were accomplishing the same 
feat as Professor Tyndal. 

Of course we paid our respects to Mrs. Webb, and 
bought a large photograph from her. 

I wish to say that there is not a single objectionable 
advertisement near Niagara, as one so often sees 
described in books. They swarm in fitting places, but 
we did not see one that marred the scenery, either at 
Niagara or anywhere else in America. Another note is 
that the Clifton House Hotel and the Queen's Hotel, in 
Toronto, are almost the only hotels in America where 
salt-spoons are found. 

TJmrsday, August 2ifd. — We walked to Prospect 
I'ark, on the American side, and went down by the 
elevator to the steamer^ which goesclose to the American 
Falls, and as near as it can get to the Horse-Shoe 
Fall. 



in Canada^ Wesfei^n U.S., and Mexico. 23 

Not only does this give one a better idea of the 
height of the falls, but it enables one to see the curious 
break in the middle of the Horse-Shoe Fall. Part of the 
rock has fallen since our visit, enlarging this break. 
The steamer approaches the Horse-Shoe Fall twice, and 
when it reaches a certain point, the water takes hold of it 
and swings it round. We landed on the Canadian side, 
and while walking along the cliff, met a fellow-passenger 
on the Umbria, who expressed himself much disap- 
pointed with Niagara. 

All through our journey we kept meeting " Um- 
brians." 

After dining early, we took the train to Chicago. It 
had to come from New York, and was two hours late, 
so we did not start until 4.45. We had a row with the 
hotel porter and the United States customs' officer, who 
was so angry because he was not tipped, that he de- 
liberately smashed my box. After turning over every- 
thing, he found the photograph of Niagara, which he 
declared was dutiable, being "a picture," but he had no 
time to inquire how much we must pay, so the baggage 
could not be put in the Chicago van, but must be 
examined at Port Huron about i a.m. After we got to 
our carriage, the hotel porter followed us, and offered to 
get the trunks put in the through van if we would give 
him a quarter. We declined to do business with him, so 
we had to pass them at Port Huron, which was no 
misfortune, as we saw the train put on to the enormous 
ferry-boat to cross the river. We had nothing to pay 
on the photograph after all. 



24 Five Months Fine Weather 

We got tea that evening very comfortably on a 
Pulman dining-car. 

Tea is generally pretty good, except that one some- 
times gets preserved milk, but dinner is not to be com- 
mended. Perhaps one would be less critical were it not 
for the expectations raised by the advertisements. 
Whose mouth would not water at the prospect of a 
meal "combining all the delicacies of the Atlantic and 
the Pacific, with the game and fruit of the countries 
passed through." This is the modest description given 
by the Northern Pacific Railroad of its Pulman dining- 
car fare. 

One does not sleep well in a Pulman car. There is a 
peculiar smell, and it is very like being in one's coffin. 
No wonder there is a smell about the bedding, for it is 
never aired. As soon as the passenger rises, the porter 
comes to do up the bed and turn it back into seats. He 
takes away the linen, but the blankets and mattresses 
are shut up inside the berth at once until next night. In 
the daytime the cars are delightful. We took the 
drawing-room on this journey. This is a little snuggery 
cut off the rest of the car, with its own washing 
apparatus. It is very comfortable, but only having 
windows on one side, it is not so convenient for seeing 
the country, so we did not take it again. 

As usual, we were hours late, and only arrived in 
Chicago at 12.40 p.m. The country passed through 
was very uninteresting and poor-looking, much of it 
still uncultivated. Chicago is a wonderful place, with 
magnificent buildings of a massive style of architecture. 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 25 

as if they were expected to stand a siege, Pulman's 
offices are one of the finest, but many far surpass any- 
thing of the kind here, for they are only private 
commercial buildings, and still they are built regardless 
of expense with blocks of granite often ten feet square 
at least. The public buildings are very fine too, but the 
roads are the same as usual, only dirtier, and the place 
is smothered in smoke. The whole town is built on a 
swamp, and has been raised eleven feet above the 
original surface, so there is naturally great difficulty 
with the drainage. We admired Chicago very much ; it 
is not only fine, but it is characteristic of its inhabitants, 
and copies no European city. 

The Palmer House Hotel is very dirty and uncomfort- 
able. Charges very high. I had my breakfast brought 
to my room one morning, and the extra charge for the 
service of bringing it was one dollar ! The Richelieu 
Hotel is said to be excellent. 

We spent our first afternoon in a general survey, and 
took the cable car to Lincoln Park, the new promenade 
along the shore of Lake Michigan. The road there 
goes through a tunnel under the river lighted by elec- 
tricity. The tramcars here are run like trains, several 
together, at a great speed, and everybody must get out 
of their way. I saw a policeman seize the horse in a 
private carriage, and force it out of the way of an 
approaching car, as if the whole place belonged to the 
tram company. The American policeman has no non- 
sense about him ; he would and does make short work 
of any troublesome people. He carries not the sword 
in vain. 



2 6 Five Months' Fine Weather 

On our return to the hotel we found an immense 
crowd awaiting the arrival of Mr. Thurman, the Demo- 
cratic candidate for the office of Vice-President. 
Another crowd came with him and filled the enormous 
hall of the hotel — there must have been over looo 
inside the hotel. Judge Thurman is a sweet-looking 
gentleman, but seemed far too old for public life, at 
least for electioneering. He was very tired, and refused 
to speak a word for a long time, but the crowd would 
not be appeased, so at last he came forward and said in 
a low voice that he " guessed he saw Democrats before 
him, and if Democrats, they were reasonable people, 
and when he told them he had travelled three hundred 
miles, and made nine little speeches, they would not 
expect a speech to-night, as he heard a few people were 
coming to hear him speak to-morrow, and he wanted 
to save his voice and strength till then." A lady 
spiritualist was waiting to present him with an address 
and a picture representing a prophetic vision she had 
had concerning him. It was very indistinct, but seemed 
full of angels, and an enthusiastic politician rushed 
about all the time thrusting into everybody's hand 
cards with a picture of the Democratic leaders, and the 
inscription. Vote for Cleveland and Thurman, and buy 
your carpets at the City of Paris Store, 138, State 
Street. 

Next day Judge Thurman had an outdoor meeting of 
about thirty thousand, but we could not attend, for 
Edward went off to see Mr. Armour's stock-killing 
establishment, five miles out by train. He did not sec 



/// Canada, Western U.S., and Afexico. 27 

the oxen led from one pen to another by the trained 
decoy ox, but saw the old fellow standing there having 
accomplished his work of treachery. He is a great pet 
of all the men. Edward saw both oxen and pigs killed 
and cut up. The cleverest thing is the contrivance for 
fetching the hair off the pigs by revolving discs with 
sharp flat springs. He saw the sausage- making, the 
potting and sealing of the canned beef, and the refrige- 
rating chambers and cars, which are kept at a tempera- 
ture of 36 degrees. The cars are double, the inner 
one being protected by the air space between it and 
the outer car, and only the ends are filled up with ice. 
Edward was astonished to see how dirty the surround- 
ings were. The places where the work is actually done 
were very clean, but outside that, all was careless and 
slovenly. Armour employs 5000 to 6000 men, and kills 
one and a quarter million hogs a year, besides 500,000 
cattle, and 100,000 sheep. 

On his return, Edward called at Mr. Armour's office. 
The clerk glanced at the clock, and said : " Mr. Armour 
is away at lunch, he will be here in a minute and a 
quarter," and he was. He spends his life in that office ; 
early in the morning and up to any time of night that 
there is any business to do. It is hardly worth while 
being a millionaire in Chicago. The clerks arrive at 
8 a.m., have three-quarters of an hour for dinner, and 
remain always until six, and later if required, and until 
three on Saturdays. Mr. Armour is very kind to his 
people, and works harder than they do. He told Edward 
that now he had found employment for all former waste 



2 8 Five Months Fine Weather 

products. He made glue, oil, grease, &c. ; the most 
valuable bit of an ox, his leg bone, is sold for knife- 
handles. He seized Edward's coat. " Why," said he, 
" these buttons are made of dried blood." He has a 
secret process of making for 40 cents {\s. Sd.) a pound 
the isinglass used for clarifying beer, formerly brought 
from Russia at three dollars (12s. 6d.) a pound. Every- 
thing not otherwise utilized is made into " fertilizers," 
i.e. manure. 

After dinner, which is early here, Mr. Armour sent 
one of his clerks with his carriage to take us to see 
his grain elevator,- We had a horrible drive to it 
through clouds of black dust and a multitude of evil 
smells. The grain elevator is situated on the side of 
the river, as much grain is brought to it by boat and 
transferred to the railway cars. There is storage-room 
for 2,250,000 bushels (of sixty pounds). The building 
is 155 feet high, and 550 long by 112 wide, and con- 
tains four tracks, on each of which twelve cars can stand 
while the grain is poured into them from above. The 
engine which works the twenty-eight elevators is of 
1 500 horse-power, and each elevator carries 7000 bushels 
an hour. First, we saw the grain shovelled out of the 
cars by large scoops, two men with scoops in each car. 
It looks like ploughing ; these men hold down the 
scoops, and a rope fastened to an engine outside pulls 
them along. They empty an immense waggon in seven 
minutes. Then we saw the "Jacob's ladder" bands 
with buckets, which run over pulleys at 570 feet a 
minute to convey the grain to the top to be weighed 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 29 

and poured into the ships or cars ready to take it away, 
or if for storage, into enormous bins 75 feet deep, and 
12 feet square. What pleased me most were the 
splendid views of Chicago from the top windows of the 
immense pile. Though it was past 6 o'clock on 
Saturday evening, the men were still working, and the 
foreman came to ask our conductor if he should begin 
to empty another lot of waggons that evening. After 
leaving the elevator, our young friend drove us round 
the towHj first down Dearborn Avenue, the property of 
Mr. Palmer, the hotel owner. It was a swamp when he 
bought it, but he made a sea wall to the lake with a fine 
promenade, and reclaimed the land, built himself a 
splendid mansion, gorgeously decorated, and then sold 
off the other land at prices which paid for everything. 
We saw numbers of fine houses, and our guide kept 
saying, "You see that large house? the owner built 
that .out of one speculation," or " that man found a 
mine out west, and built that house out of it," &c. 
Money seems to be made here quickly, but not 
easily. 

Business-hours are dreadful. There can be no social 
life or interest in music, literature, politics, or science, 
when men are at their offices twelve hours a day. The 
shops were open, and masons and road-menders, &c., at 
work that Saturday evening, and afterwards we noticed 
that not only do Americans work all Saturday, but 
often on Sunday. 

Sunday, 26th August, was desperately hot. We had 
a dinner worth recording. 



30 Five Months' Fine Weather'- 

Mock Turtle Soup 

Fried Soft-shell Crabs. 

l^randy Peaches. Stuffed Mangoes. 

Boiled Capon, Cream Sauce. 

Corn on Cob. Tomatoes. 

Sweetbreads with Mushrooms. 

Frog Legs a la Maitre d'hotel. 

Punch Siberian. 
Pies. Cakes. Ices. Coffee. 

The crabs were nasty — the soft shells give one the 
impression they are out of season. Frog legs good. 

Dinner over, we turned out to see what we could. 
After vainly endeavouring to extract any information 
from the hall porter, we got into a cable car for South 
Park, four miles out, and went as far as the car would 
take us, which was some way past the park. It looked 
very gay and pretty, with plenty of visitors ; then, after 
coming back a little way, we changed to another car 
that went to Jackson's Park by the lake side, which is 
also very pretty and nicely kept, but both badly want 
good trees. It was a great rush and scramble to get 
seats in the homeward cars. We jumped on as the car 
was coming up to the park, and coming pretty fast, too, 
and kept our hold until some one got out, and then 
we managed to get room to perch for the return 
journey. 

The cars carry as many as can find foot-hold. In the 
country where the road is clear, they go at great speed, 
up to fourteen miles an hour. 



in Canada, Western U.S., a7id Mexico. 31 

Next day I spent alone, roaming round the town and 
looking at the shops, which are poor and dear. Some 
moderately good peaches were marked 35 cents each, 
which did not seem to be cheaper than the English. 
In New York, too, they were dear. Perhaps the abun- 
dant and cheap peaches are found in the Eastern States. 
We paid only 5 cents each for large ones in San Fran- 
cisco in October, but they had no flavour. American 
peaches are hard, and are cut into slices and eaten with 
cream for breakfast, I visited the school of art, where 
they have Mr. Boughton's " The Last Minstrel." In 
the meanwhile Edward had gone to Pulman Town, 
about three-quarters of an hour by tram. This is en- 
tirely the property of the Pulman Palace Car Company, 
who have laid it out nicely, with trees and open spaces, 
and is occupied by their 4000 workmen. 

The only place where drink is sold is the bar of the 
hotel. On the whole Edward was rather disappointed. 
There was nothing new in the iron-working machinery. 
The wood-carving machinery was interesting, and the 
works for making the brown paper wheels, which are 
said to be a great success. They are made of layers of 
brown paper pasted together and compressed by hy- 
draulic pressure, becoming so hard, that they can be 
turned up like wood to fit the steel tyre. The Pulman's 
cars are very handsomely upholstered in plush, and 
expensively decorated. Inlaid woods had gone out of 
fashion, and the new cars were being decorated with 
natural woods polished to show the grain. The com- 
pany kindly sent Edward by special engine to the South 



32 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

Chicago iron and steel works, where he saw four blast 
furnaces in operation smelting Lake Superior iron ore, 
which is very rich, containing 60 per cent, metallic iron. 
Each furnace produces 1300 tons a week. The steel 
works were stopped for want of work. Business is 
always slack- at the presidential election, and of course 
this, which turns on the Free Trade question, is more 
disturbing than usual. 

Protection does not always keep the wolf from the 
door. I was astonished to find from a local paper that 
there is great poverty even in this prosperous city. The 
articles in this paper were written by a lady who has 
taken employment in a number of trade establishments, 
just staying long enough in each to see how it is carried 
on, and she gives her experience. It is a pitiful tale, 
quite equal to " The Bitter Cry of Outcast London." 
Here the misery of low wages is increased by the exces- 
sive cost of living. It seems extraordinary that there 
should be actual starvation here in the centre of the 
great corn-lands, and especially now, when the harvest 
is above the average. A gentleman told us he had 
been visiting in the country, and to show him how fine 
the corn is, his friend drove him in a two-horse waggon 
into a field, and standing up in the waggon, they could 
not look over the top of the corn. Corn, in America, I 
should mention, always means maize. 

Edward's final excursion was to see the new tunnel 
under the lake to bring water to the city. There is one 
already, but the new one is to run four miles out, to 
make certain of getting pure water. A crib is to be 



in Canada, Western U.S., a?id Mexico. 2>3 

sunk, wilh a large wrought-iron cylinder, two miles out, 
to facilitate working. In the afternoon we moved on two 
and a half hours by train to Milwaukee, a very pretty, 
bright-looking, brand-new town on the edge of Lake 
Michigan, almost exclusively inhabited by Germans. 
It was curious to hear every one talking German and 
shouting, " Ach ja ! " " Je wohl ! " A large party were 
at the station to greet some returning friends, which 
they did with great enthusiasm. It is said the Germans 
keep very much to themselves in America, and, if 
strong enough, try to Germanize the public institutions, 
having in some places actually caused the public day- 
schools to teach in German. This makes the genuine 
Americans very angry. 

The Plankington Hotel is poorly conducted and 
cheaply gaudy. We were disappointed, as Mr. Armour 
had spoken of it as very fine, being the property of his 
friend, the great Milwaukee millionaire, Plankington. 
There is a kind of tradition that a millionaire should 
always build a hotel. We started for Minneapolis next 
day at 11.15 a.m. There was no Pulman car on the 
day train, so we had a very fatiguing journey. It is 
not usual to have Pulman cars on what are called local 
trains. The ordinary cars are not uncomfortable, but 
they are very noisy. As soon as the train starts a man 
comes selling newspapers ; he goes through all the cars, 
banging the doors after him, then he comes back and 
brings round a cargo of books, mostly pirated editions 
of "Robert Elsmere" and Rider Haggard's books. 
Then he goes round with apples and pears, then ba- 

D 



34 Five MontJis Fine Weather 

nanas, then dried figs. At each visit he requires your 
attention, and sometimes one gets cross at the perpetual 
interruptions. 

There are always babies in ordinary or Pulman cars. 
Children do not have a good time in America. When 
a few weeks old their travels begin. They swarm in 
hotels, little dots of two or three years old taking meals 
at the table-d'hote at seven and eight o'clock in the 
evening, and those of riper years, such as six, roam all 
over the hotels alone, playing with the elevator boys 
and the waiters. They look very delicate. On this 
occasion there were several babies in the car, and they 
all screamed. There was not much to see on the way ; 
we seemed to go over endless swamps, past many lakes, 
and very poor-looking soil, mostly not cultivated or 
even used as grazing-land. 

Nothing astonished me so much in America as the 
immense tracts of totally unoccupied land even so far 
east as this. Later on we met a gentleman who had 
a cattle ranche in Texas. He told us his cattle were 
driven up every year for sale to Miles City, Dakota, 
a town on this line of railway, the whole way on 
free land, feeding on the grass they pass over. He 
thought this would be the last year they could do it, as 
the land was being quickly taken up. At half-past 
three we reached Kilbourn, which is a pretty little 
place ; and at half-past four. Camp Douglas, where 
there are some remarkable rocks standing out of the 
plain and curious round, flat-topped hills. A little 
before five o'clock we came to a tunnel, which is such a 



in Canada, Western U.S., and JMexico. 35 

curiosity in this flat region that a city has been named 
after it — Tunnel City. Just as we entered the tunnel 
an unlucky passenger opened the car door, admitting 
a blast of sulphur that almost poisoned us. A lady 
with a terrible cough was half killed. The single-line 
tunnels are very suffocating, being so narrow. We had 
tea at La Crosse, and after that ran along the bank of 
the Mississippi all the rest of the way. It was really 
lovely ; the sunset glow on the broad river and the 
pretty banks, and the big steamers and rafts, were all 
delightful, but the mosquitoes, which swarmed into the 
cars, were not delightful. We must have taken them 
to the hotel, for they worried us all night, I slept with 
a veil on. We arrived at Minneapolis at 11.55 p.m., and 
got a cab for a dollar to the West Hotel, We had great 
difficulty in getting our luggage, as the station-master 
said it was too late for any one to bother about luggage. 

West House is a first-rate hotel, very handsomely 
built by the millionaire West, and splendidly furnished 
in excellent taste. We were thankful to get to a com- 
fortable room, with a bath, for we were grimy and dirty 
beyond description. Very bad coal is burnt on the 
railways here, very smoky, and with an unpleasant smell. 

Thursday, August loth. — Our first care was to go to 
the Northern Pacific agent, to make inquiries about the 
Yellowstone Park, We had had so much advice on 
the subject that we were quite at sea. It ended in our 
buying the forty-dollar round-trip tickets, which are cer- 
tainly the most satisfactory arrangement. All trouble 
is taken off one's-hands, and time and opportunity given 

D 2 



36 Five Months Fine WeatJier 

to see everything worth seeing. A lady and gentleman 
in the office told us they had just returned from the 
Park, and had had wet, cold weather. They advised 
us to take plenty of wraps and waterproofs, which we 
did, and found them dreadfully in the way, as we did 
not have a drop of rain. 

Minneapolis is a charming town, with some very fine 
buildings. The cause of its prosperity is the water-power 
supplied by the once beautiful Falls of St. Anthony, 
which are now utilized for everything — the water carried 
off in little channels to mills and works without number. 
Edward presented his letters of introduction, and then 
we visited the celebrated Pilsbury and Company Mills. 
The Company present visitors with a card, on which is 
printed : — 

" Startling Facts. 

"Fact No. I. — Mill A is the eighth wonder of the 
world. 

"Fact No. 2. — Mill A grinds 9,500,000 bushels of 
wheat yearly. 

"Fact No. 3. — Mill A has a capacity of 7000 barrels 
daily. 

" Fact No. 4. — Mill A makes more flour than any 
other two mills on the globe. 

"Fact No. 5. — The mills of C. A. Pilsbury and Co. 
could feed two cities as large as New York." 

It is supposed to be the largest flour-mill in existence, 
and has every new appliance. The flour goes through 
four hundred operations before it is ready for use. We 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 2)7 

were shown all over the immense place, which is beauti- 
fully clean, but very hot. Every precaution has to be 
taken against fire. We got a splendid view of the 
town from the top. Then we went to some lumber 
works, which were very interesting. We saw the tree 
floating in the river, then drawn up a tram-line by 
chains, and put on to a wonderful machine that cut off 
the rough outside uneven layer, and passed it on to 
other machines, which made it into planks, planed them, 
cut them into lengths, and piled them in several heaps, 
according to length, in the yard. Then we went back 
to "the most magnificent hotel in the world" (see ad- 
vertisement), looking in at the Exhibition on our way. 
It was very poor. Next morning we had a delightful 
excursion to Minnehaha Falls on the motorcar ; we had 
only seven minutes to run across the road and through 
a little wood to the Falls, and back to the car. They 
deserved a much longer visit, for it was a pretty 
spot, and the Falls are well named, they are such 
sparkling, laughing waters. We should be very proud 
of them in England, but in America people are accus- 
tomed to bigger things. 

At 4.35 p.m. we started by the Northern Pacific 
Railroad for Livingstone Junction, for the Yellowstone 
Park. The country was very uninteresting at first, and, 
not having got accustomed to the sleeping-berths, the 
night was very disagreeable. I tried really go''f"j.ther 

bed, as most people do, but never ''Pi\<. <- -.t-^ . K,,f 
' r 1:" ' .y of letters to write ; but 

ment. I was always X}\% ^ o • ct- a- ,1 

' .e Hot Sprmgs alter dinner, and 

secured the lavatory ^ 



2)S Five Months Fine Weather 

Saturday we spent mostly on the platform at the back 
of our car — a capital place for seeing the country, as the 
Pulman is always at the end of the train, unless there is 
a private car on. Of course it is very dusty, but that is 
of no consequence. We met an Englishman on his way 
to join his brother at his ranche in Wyoming, who had 
been over here several times before. He told us that a 
few years ago he and his brother were detained at 
Livingstone a few days, just as the boom in land was 
going on, as it was thought Livingstone would become 
a great centre. They bought land at the beginning of 
the week, and so rapid was the rise in price that they 
sold it at the end of the week at a profit sufficient to 
cover the expense of their whole trip. Livingstone did 
not succeed as expected, so land has gone down again. 
This seems to be the history of most western towns. 
It is quite a common question to ask about a place, if it 
has had a boom ; it seems to be a kind of distemper to 
be got over in youth. Our friend also explained to us 
how the places get such wonderful names. A trapper 
he knew married and settled at a place on the line. His 
name was Gustav, and his wife's name Minnie, so he 
named the settlement after themselves, Mingusville. It 
is situated between Bismarck and Gladstone. At first 
the country was very uninteresting ; then we got to the 
prairies, which were not covered with grass, but with 
coc v,t-ush, a pale, silvery, olive-coloured plant with a 

It is supposed to'^&y^ some now sewn in muslin. An 
and has every new appliaricfcld in the place of quinine, 
four hundred operations before it^^cl Lands, which arc 



ill Canada, Wesfeni U.S., and Mexico. 39 

wonderful. Everything is burnt, and turned curious 
colours, bright red and yellow, &c. The rocks are the 
oddest shapes, and there are mounds of all sizes and 
fossil trees. There was hardly any vegetation, and what 
there was looked uncanny — such metallic greens and 
blues. It is said that in places there are coal-seams 
exposed to the air and burning perpetually. We were 
a long time passing through this desolate district, which 
made us reflect what a terrible journey it must have 
been for the early settlers, who had only bullock- 
waggons. After that the country again became mono- 
tonous and uninteresting, except for the wild sunflowers, 
which made a blaze of colour along the roadside. The 
train reached Livingstone in the night, and went on 
West, leaving our car on a siding. The station had 
been burnt down the night before our arrival, and the 
remains were still smouldering. We had to pick our way 
through them to the hotel for breakfast next morning. 

We left by train at 8.15 for Cinnabar, through a very 
wild and pretty valley, passing the Devil's Slide on the 
way — a curious wall of stone in one block, fourteen feet 
across, running straight up the hill, with another wall 
parallel to it, not so strongly marked, and all the clay 
between washed away. At Cinnabar we took seats on 
the coach roof, and had a lovely drive up the valley of 
the Garrison River, a very steep pull, to the Mammoth 
Hot Springs Hotel, where we arrived very tired, hungry, 
and dirty. It was very hot, so I declined further 
exertion that day, having plenty of letters to write ; but 
Edward started for the Hot Springs after dinner, and 



40 Five Months' Fine Weather 

went past them to the Devil's Fireplace, a narrow hole 
extending far into the ground, and said to be very hot. 
A ladder is placed for the benefit of those who care to 
enter, but few fancy the descent. There he met two 
young fellows, who persuaded him to go on with them 
to a hot lake set apart for men to bathe, and had a 
delightful bath. The hotel here is very good and com- 
fortable. It has a good view of the terraces of the hot 
springs and Liberty Cap, a large rock supposed to 
resemble in shape the cap on the dollar. I had a bath 
in the evening, and was alarmed by a terrible grass- 
hopper kind of creature that had come direct from the 
springs through the pipes. Still, the lady at Santa 
Barbara whose ablutions were disturbed by a large 
tarantula, fared worse than I did. 

Monday, September -^rd. — We started at eight o'clock 
in a charming little carriage and pair called a Surrey. 
A nice young fellow from Helena we had talked to the 
day before introduced us to our driver, a merry, chatty 
old gentleman, who showed us everything on the road, 
and drove very carefully. The road is generally very 
good, but occasionally there is a stream to drive through 
or a rocky bit, and sometimes the road goes dangerously 
near the rotten ground round the springs. Miss Bates 
describes both the Yellowstone and the Yosemite as 
dangerous and very fatiguing expeditions, but both have 
been wonderfully improved since she visited them. We 
met neither difficulty nor danger at either. The fourth 
occupant of our carriage was a gentleman from New 
York, who travelled with us from Minneapolis, and was 



y 



m Canada ^ Western U.S.^ and Ulcxico. 41 

very quiet and pleasant. There must have been over 
thirty carriages of all kinds. Some large 'busses, others 
holding six or eight people, and a few like ours. It is 
prudent to settle on the day of arrival how one wishes 
to go round the Park, for there is no changing on the 
way, and disagreeable fellow-travellers would spoil all 
pleasure. The long procession kept together through 
the steep defile of the Golden Gate, so called because 
the rocks are covered with bright golden yellow moss. 
The gate itself is a pillar of rock on the precipice side 
of the road, which really is like a gate-post. After 
reaching level ground we scattered to avoid dust. The 
first point of interest is the Obsidian Cliff's, entirely 
composed of this volcanic glass which is quite black. 
There were a few boiling springs, but wonderland is 
not reached until lunch-time at Norris Geyser Hotel. 
After the meal we all walked on ahead of our carriages 
to the First Geyser Basin. There would be about sixty 
of us — no guides — the steam and smell and noise 
direct one where to go. Anything more uncanny, 
horrible and extraordinary than this dreadful place does 
not exist ! Boiling springs sending up columns of steam, 
some clear, some black, some sulphur, close together. 
Some throbbing like great machines, and the water 
sinking out of sight, and then rushing up again with a 
terrible noise. One little geyser playing every two 
minutes, others at longer and irregular intervals. The 
riost appalling is called the Hurricane. The water is 
shot out of the rock sideways with tremendous force and 
noise, not continuously or apparently regularly, but as if 



42 Five Months Fine Weather 

some great struggle was going on inside. The ground 
is uncomfortably hot, and sounds quite hollow. It is 
white like lime, with bright-coloured spots, where there 
is iron or sulphur. There are dozens of springs, some 
only bubbling, some throwing spray or drops a foot high 
— all boiling. If there is a Mouth of Hell on earth, it 
is certainly here. Going on, we came to a mud geyser, 
which immediately started its performance for us. It 
always bubbles, and it seems to get excited, and in three 
places in the pool the mud dashes itself higher and 
higher and more and more violently up to about four 
or five feet high, raising the level of the whole basin, 
which is about fifteen feet diameter, about a foot. After 
some minutes it gradually quietens and subsides. A sad 
thing happened here last year. Some visitors had a pet 
dog with them, and somebody having thrown a stone 
into the boiling mud, the poor little thing thought it was 
meant for him, and jumped in. He sank out of sight 
instantly. We went on to the Steam Valve and another 
large basin, but neither did more than bubble, so we 
went into the wood, where we found a magnificent 
geyser that had killed the trees round it, and covered 
them with incrustation. To our delight it began to 
work, and was soon throwing up water to the height of 
fifty or sixty feet ; quite a great stream was made by the 
overflow. It performed twice. The Minute Geyser 
refused to do anything for us. I put my finger into a 
hot spring at leisure, but I took it out in haste. It was 
scalding. All over the park at every turn, amongst the 
trees, at the top of the hills, at the side of icy cold rivers, 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 43 

everywhere are boiling springs — mostly mineral water, 
but unfortunately so full of alkali that they cannot 
be used for medical purposes. In about an hour the 
carriages picked us up, and we drove on. 

The Beryl spring is a lovely light blue semicircular 
pool standing about three feet above the road like an 
ornamental marble basin. The spring builds this basin 
itself by depositing the lime contained in the water. 
We passed Beaver Lake, so called because beavers 
abound there, and have built a dam zigzag across the 
lake. Their houses look like piles of sticks. It is 
forbidden to kill anything in the park, so it is hoped by- 
and-by there will be plenty of the wild animals there 
which are being rapidly exterminated outside. We 
only saw beavers, a snake, wild ducks, little birds, a few 
butterflies, and large dragon-flies, and traces of elk. 
Some of the other party saw a bear, which are pretty 
common, and are said to come down to the hotels at 
night to eat the refuse thrown out for the pigs. 

We passed some very pretty lakes and rivulets, all full 
of curious colours, and near the hotel we forded the rapid 
Fire Hole River. It was the third time we had forded a 
river in our forty miles' drive to Lower Geyser Basin. 
We were seven and a quarter hours on the way, arriving 
shortly after five o'clock. A very decent hotel, like a 
Swiss chalet with tiny rooms, quite clean. We visited the 
Gibbon Falls on our way, and had a difficult scramble 
down the steep hill-side without much reward, as there 
was hardly any water. We met numbers of camping 
parties. Sheep-farmers and people of that kind in the 



44 /"z:^^ Months Fine Weather 

neighbouring country bring all their families and num- 
bers of servants, in waggons and on horseback, and live 
in tents on canned food. Unfortunately they cover the 
park with rubbish — it is littered with cans, which of 
course last for years. As a whole the park is ugly ; 
there must be nine dead trees to one green one. 

Tuesday, September /\th. — Drove off at seven o'clock, 
and followed the Fire Hole River for some time. First 
we saw the Paint Pots. Like everything else, this has 
been over-described. It is very curious to see the mud 
bubbling up, but it is not brilliantly coloured. It is very 
fine, and generally white, tinted in places with pink and 
blue. There is a tiny little spring close by that clucks 
like a hen. The noises of some of the boiling springs 
make one's flesh creep. As one bends over them, and 
looks down into the bottomless depths, groans and 
wailings seem to rise from them as if prisoners in tor- 
ment. The next great sight was the Excelsior Geyser, 
which kept us waiting two hours, not only in a blazing 
sun, but in clouds of steam from the Prismatic Lake and 
the Turquoise Lake, both lovely and of marvellous 
colouring, but disagreeable to be near^ because of the 
sulphur-smelling steam, which damps one's clothes and 
one's spirits. The Excelsior Geyser itself is in a lake 
with rocky sides about fifty feet high when it is 
quiescent. When at work the whole surface of the lake 
rises considerably. At last the performance began, and 
we all stood on the brink and watched the water begin 
to bubble in different places, then the centre became 
more and more agitated and the Geyser rose, first quite 



ill Canada^ Western U .S., and Mexico. 45 

small, then higher and larger, until we had to fly from 
the torrent of water and stones that were thrown hundreds 
of feet high and yards over the edge. One gentleman 
was badly hit by a stone. It was an absurd sight to see 
us all flying, after having chosen our positions so care- 
fully to get the best possible view. This piece of the 
park which contains the Excelsior Geyser, the lakes, and 
several boiling springs, is a desolate region, all brim- 
stone and alkali, and so horrible to look at that it is 
called " Hell's Half Acre." A soldier of the garrison 
was loitering by the Prismatic Lake when we first 
arrived, and he puzzled us by telling us it was the 
" Spasmodic " Lake. We did not know what it might 
do. A little further on we found the Grotto, Giant, and 
other geysers, all silent except for steam, and then the 
Devil's Punch Bowl, a curious hill which the spring has 
built around itself. The ground is so rotten for some 
distance that we could not drive near it, and even had to 
pick our way carefully on foot. This rotten ground is 
the only danger of the park. Since our visit a carriage 
was overturned by the ground giving way under two 
wheels, and was rescued with difficulty. Happily the 
visitors had got out to look at something. It is said 
that people have been badly burnt, and even killed by 
falling through the rotten edges of the springs and 
geysers, which are never protected, but these casualties 
are not put in the papers. 

The most beautiful object in the park is the Castle 
Geyser. The formation is really like an old castle. 
Almost every geyser builds up some kind of house for 



46 Five Months' Fine Weather 

itself with the deposit from the waters, and this is called 
the formation. Often the shapes are very remarkable, 
as the Grotto, which has almost roofed itself in. The 
Castle performs very irregularly. It was very lively all 
the time we were within sight, rising to about forty feet, 
but it did not go off properly until after we had left. 
Those who stayed all night at the Upper Geyser Basin 
Hotel saw it rise to the height of 150 feet, and said it 
was glorious. 

We arrived at the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel after 
fourteen miles' drive, and had lunch, after which I went 
with others to visit the neighbourhood, which is the 
headquarters of the geysers, but Edward was so unwell, 
he preferred to sit on the veranda and watch Old 
Faithful, which is close by, and goes off every sixty-five 
minutes, and is as fine as any. It is a very serious draw- 
back to the Yellowstone Park that the air, or steam, or 
something, seeks out everybody's weak point and attacks 
it. Edward felt his rheumatism, as did many others, 
those with weakness of the heart were quite ill, weak 
throats and chests suffered. There were very few of us 
free from pain. About a dozen of us got a soldier who 
happened to be loitering near, to act as guide. There is 
a garrison in the park, to prevent visitors shooting wild 
animals, or defacing the scenery, or carrying off 
specimens, or annoying the geysers by throwing in 
stones or soap to make them work. It is extraordinary 
that soap cut into thin pieces and thrown into a geyser 
will cause it to perform. I met people who had done it ; 
but, unfortunately, after we had left the park, otherwise 



in Canada, Western [/.S., and Mexico. 47 

I might have got a new testimonial to the efficacy of 
" Pears." We saw the Lion play, and afterwards the 
Lioness and the Cubs, a large geyser with four little 
ones round it. We admired the formation of the 
Sponge, so like a sponge that one is astonished to find 
it hard to the touch ; the Beach, just like a bit of sea- 
shore, and many others much alike, some silent, some 
extinct; one born only three months ago, and one a 
year old. The Bee-hive, and several others well known 
by name, have not gone off for years. Our guide told 
us he had been on the spot over a year, and had watched 
the geysers carefully. He said none except Old Faith- 
ful worked at regular intervals, as they were said to do 
formerly, but his opinion was that they never had clone 
so. Some would remain quiet for months and then 
break out again and perform daily or several times a day. 
We saw the Minute Man Geyser, not large, but a very 
pretty one, which really did go off every minute, and 
a quite new geyser which has this peculiarity : — all the 
water thrown up falls back into the basin, and recedes 
into the depths again, none escapes. The Beauty 
Spring is a large pool, very transparent, and full of lovely 
colours. The beauty of the large springs consists in the 
colouring. They are supposed to be bottomless. The 
centre is dark blue, and has a weird, unfathomable look, 
the sides are formation deposited by the spring, and 
shine light blue, green and white through the clear water, 
bubbles rise continually like messages from below, and, 
bending over, one hears strange noises. Altogether, the 
horrible desolation, the dead trees, the glaring white 



48 Five Months' Fine Weather 

ground, the steam, the sulphur smells, the choking white 
dust, the uncanny noises, and the geysers going off all 
around in the most startling fashion, make a scene to be 
remembered with interest, but never with a wish to re- 
visit it. All is marvellous, but desperately ugly and 
disagreeable. It corresponds in America to the chamber 
of horrors at Madame Tussaud's. 

We drove back to Lower Geyser Basin that night by 
a shorter route, and had the luck to come upon the 
Grotto Geyser in full play. After dinner, my diary was 
a source of great uneasiness to an American lady. She 
felt sure I was saying disagreeable things about Ameri- 
cans, which was certainly not the case, as my only 
entry about them was my amusement at the perpetual 
question, as I stood admiring something, " Now, have 
you anything like this in Europe ? " (invariably pro- 
nounced " Your 'ope.") In the Yellowstone Park, I 
could conscientiously answer that we had not. Jonathan 
is rather touchy. I was speaking of a very pretty girl 
we had met riding through the park. I remarked, she 
reminded me of an Engl'sh girl, because she was so sun- 
burnt. A stranger from the other end of the table 
called out he " begged to inform me there were pretty 
girls in America." I explained I thought the American 
girls took better care of their complexions, and so peace 
was restored. There were no other Britishers in the 
park except a young Englishman, settled in Helena, 
and a Welsh parson, also settled in America, and who 
was actually tramping through the park without any 
money in his pocket and living on the charity of tlte 



in Canada, Western U.S.^ and Mexico. 49 

drivers, or any one who might hear of his case. I 
believe he slept in the stables. We met very few 
English travellers during the whole of our journey. 
Our room this time was in the dependance, close by a 
hot spring. It was funny to trot downstairs and fill 
one's pitcher, like Rebecca, every time we wanted a 
little hot water. We had to be careful in the dark; as 
there was no railing round the basin. 

Wednesday, September $th. — By returning to the 
Lower Geyser Hotel, instead of sleeping at the Upper 
Geyser Hotel, as many did, we saved ten miles in this 
day's journey, only leaving thirty-two miles to the 
Caiion. We started soon after seven o'clock, and, ex- 
cept that the road was extremely bad, there was nothing 
remarkable before lunch. We had then reached a 
dreary spot, miles from any habitation, and found there 
two tents and a delightful Irishman, who lives here 
with one assistant through the season to provide lunch. 
He gave us an excellent meal of hard-boiled eggs, pie, 
potted turkey, ham, tongue, tea, coffee, &c., and was so 
chatty and merry we enjoyed our stay there very much. 
He intimated that he had been one of Mr. Forster's 
victims, but J. think it was his joke, he did not look 
outrageous. Soon after leaving here we reached Mary's 
Lake, the highest part of the park. It is merely a 
collection of rain-water with two outlets. Then we had 
to take a great round, owing to the rotten ground, to 
get to the Sulphur Mountains, hills entirely composed 
of sulphur, and at the foot a large yellow spring bub- 
bling violentlj\ It was very curious and ugly. At 

E 



50 Five Months Fine Weather 

one point we were within seven miles of the Yellowstone 
Lake ; occasionally people go there from the Canon, 
and have some fishing, which is poor, as the lake is 
overstocked and the trout are unhealthy and unfit for 
food. 

We arrived at the Grand Caiion Hotel about three 
o'clock, meeting on the way the landlady, head waiter 
and two maid-servants riding for pleasure on the ponies 
which should have taken visitors up the Canon. We 
luckily preferred walking, as it is only three and a half 
miles to Inspiration Point, the end of the path. It was 
the very best time of the day to see the Caiion as the 
afternoon sun shone straight down it, bringing out the 
beautiful colours in the cliffs, red, yellow, brown, and 
occasionally blue, with a lovely green river dashing 
down the middle, sometimes over rocks with white, 
angry waves, and occasional pools of darker green. 
The path which runs along the top of the cliff is quite 
easy, but there are points jutting out into the Canon 
from which the finest views can be obtained, which are 
rather dizzy climbs. Look-Out Point is easy and the 
view from that magnificent. The Caiion is glorious, 
very deep, and with rocks curiously shaped into pinna- 
cles, turrets, even animals, and wonderfully coloured. 
The Falls are grand, but the Caiion is even more lovely 
than the Falls, and it is utterly unlike anything in the 
Old World. 

We looked down into two eagles' nests. An eaglet 
in one was raging and scolding a strange bird that was 
taking a mean advantage of the old birds' absence to 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 51 

steal the baby's food. In the wood that skirts the 
Cafion we saw numbers of chipmunks, or ground 
squirrels, so tame and so inquisitive that they come 
within a yard of one's feet, and gaze most intelligently 
at the stranger. Inspiration Point is extremely fine. We 
were three and a quarter hours in the Cafion that after- 
noon. Next morning we got up early and went to 
Look-Out Point to see the morning sun shine down 
the Cafion from the other end, but we preferred the 
evening sun. We also went down a steep path to the 
platform on the edge of the Lower Falls, whence one 
looks straight down over the Fall, which is 350 feet 
high and has an immense volume of water. The 
Upper Falls are smaller, but also very pretty. The 
hotel is a rough wooden building, very cold, badly 
managed, and uncomfortable. Food uneatable. Some 
people go back from here over Mount Washburn on 
horseback, a very fatiguing ride. Opinions were 
divided as to whether the views did or did not 
repay one for the trouble. It is also a considerable 
addition to the expense. Our journey was entirely 
covered by the forty-dollar tickets — hotel accommoda- 
tion, carriages, and all. We thought it very cheap. 

At ten o'clock we started for the last day's drive in 
the Park by a new road direct to Norris Geyser Hotel, 
passing the beautiful Virginia Falls. The river does 
not fall, but runs over a steep bank of rock sloping very 
rapidly from a great height, at a point where the hills 
draw close and make a narrow gorge with curious 
rocks. We found a large party at Norris Springs 

E 2 



52 Five Months Fine Weather 

Hotel, the Press Association of Dakota, eighty of them, 
with their wives and sisters ; a very Hvely set. One of 
them addressed himself to us, and finished by presenting 
us with "his card," which turned out to be a tract. 
Our driver turned up his nose with disgust. " Why," 
said he, " he's a sky pilot/' A queer old fellow, our 
driver, X. Beadier! He is lame from a gunshot wound 
in the thigh, received years ago in the rough old times 
when he was a miner and used to act as guard to the 
bullion wagfcons. The road robbers were so bad then 
that fights were constantly occurring. It is his boast 
that he never gave up his gold, he always " shot first," 
and had thus killed many men. At last a vigilance 
committee was organized to put down the robbers and 
he was made captain. After many days hunting for 
the suspicious characters, they arrested over one hun- 
dred men, gave them a fair trial, and hung twenty-two. 
This settled matters so far as the public was concerned 
but Beadier had many fights afterwards with the friends 
of the men hung. The State is going to give him five 
thousand dollars. Last year the proposal to do so was 
lost by one vote ; but this year, it is said, he is certain 
to get it. He was a delightful driver, and should be 
secured at once by any English visitor. Some of the 
old robber race still remain, for only last year the 
Northern Pacific train was stopped and looted by four 
men, who failed to break into the strong bullion safe 
but " held up " the passengers. " Holding up " signi- 
fies the American brigands' custom of making the 
victims hold up both arms to show that they have no 
weapons, while their pockets are picked. They are 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 53 

placed in a line and one robber covers them with his 
revolver while the others secure the plunder. 

From Norris we drove back to the Mammoth Hot 
Springs the way we came, stopping to obtain some 
specimens at the Obsidian Cliffs. We arrived about a 
quarter to five, before the rest of the party, and so 
secured a good room, and then went off to the hot 
springs as I wanted to see them before changing my 
dusty garments. We climbed from one basin to another, 
admiring the extraordinary formations and the colours, 
from pure white to dark chocolate, green, pink, and 
yellow. One place looked just like a shop-window 
with silks puffed out for exhibition, of every shade, 
from cream to dark brown. In the basins are lovely 
fringes and tracery of formation, sometimes like sea- 
weed — in another place like large fans. I picked a bit 
of formation out of the hot basin, and, to my surprise 
found a living tiny worm on it. The water was too hot 
to keep one's hand in a moment. We could hardly 
tear ourselves away, and only gave ourselves time to 
rush back for dinner. Next day we rested, read and 
wrote letters, and said farewell to our fellow-travellers, 
who all left in the morning. It was this morning that 
we were amused to see an American child about five 
years old come into the coffee-room, seat herself at a 
table, summon the waiter, and order her breakfast, 
which she had all alone. 

Very few new arrivals came, as the season is nearly 
over. Last year there were four inches of snow on the 
1st of September. 

Saturday, September St/i. — We started, in the com- 



54 Five Months Fine Weather 

pany of the Dakota editors, for Livingstone, where we 
lost our friends, who had special carriages into which 
they kindly invited us, but we were only going to 
Helena. We were kept waiting so long at Cinnabar, 
apparently to please the conductor, that we had no 
time, as promised, for tea at Livingstone. Punctuality 
is not the soul of business on American railways. We 
were not to arrive at Helena until 1.45 a.m., so settled 
ourselves to sleep, but about midnight a poor little 
mite of three years old, who had been dragged all 
through the park and was utterly worn out, suddenly 
found expression for her misery in a series of shrieks 
and wild sobbing. After vainly endeavouring to soothe 
her with apples and iced water, the father carried her 
off to the smoking-room. Fancy an English child con- 
suming apples and iced water at midnight ! But I 
think the oddest meal I ever saw living being partake 
of, was the evening repast of a boy of ten or so on the 
Hudson River steamer. He ate a Vanilla cream ice 
with bread-and-butter ! We passed through a tunnel 
lined only a small part of the way with wood. It goes 
through some coal seams, and it was very pretty to see 
the coal sparkle as our lights passed it. The Cosmo- 
politan Hotel at Helena is rather rough. We had a 
good room, pervaded by a strong chemical smell from a 
shop on the ground floor. On the whole we were com- 
fortable, but the food was bad. 

Helena is a wonderfully pretty place, not in itself, but 
from its position. The glow of the sun on the red plains, 
the sand clouds, and the blue mountains in the back- 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 55 

ground, reminded us of Mr. Goodall's Eastern Pictures, 
There is a Chinese quarter, principally gambling-houses, 
which is the great Chinese vice. They live principally 
by market-gardening. 

We got a beautiful view of the town, which is on the 
slopes of some hills, with the plain in front of it and 
the distant mountains, from the Reservoir Hill, where, 
too, we met a Scotchwoman, happily married and 
settled, but rather home-sick. Still, she liked Helena 
better than San Francisco, she said, where she had 
formerly lived, and where she had seen several murders 
in the streets. I never heard a good word spoken for 
San Francisco by any one who had lived there, even 
Californians dislike it, and go east as soon as they have 
made money. 

Monday, September 12th. — We started in a " Surrey " 
and pair for Marysville and the Drumlummon Mine, 
three and a quarter hours' drive up hill, through very 
pretty scenery. Both the Northern Pacific and the 
Montana Central have a line to Marysville, and run each 
one train a day each way, though there is nothing but 
the mine at Marysville, another mine starting somewhere 
a few miles further up the hills, and some wretched cot- 
tages on the way. Mr. Bayliss, the English manager 
of the mine, and his pretty wife received us very kindly. 
It is great satisfaction to have such a specimen of 
English beauty in Helena, which is rather noted for 
pretty women. It was also very pleasant to hear once 
more the English language, as she is spoke at home. The 
Americans in the West are very difficult to understand, 



56 Five Months Fine Weather 

all the vowels are pronounced " aw," and the consonants 
are rather slurred over. 

The celebrated Drumlummon Mine is in the side 
of a hill. After putting on rubber boots and mackin- 
toshes we walked to the entrance, where we were 
seated on a car and pulled along some way on a level 
to where there were many men working, far away 
inside the hill ; there were cuttings both above and 
below. We descended two hundred feet and saw more 
rock-drilling. Part of the mine was closed, to put in 
a large engine for hoisting up the quartz, and to sink 
the shaft deeper, to one thousand feet. After lunch, 
such a treat after table-d'hote meals, we went through 
the mills to see the quartz crushed. It first goes into a 
machine like the Marsden stone-breaker, from which it 
falls into stamps, where it is pounded small, and then is 
washed through wires and over large plates covered 
with quicksilver which picks up most of the gold and 
silver and every three hours is removed and the precious 
metals separated from it by heat and made into bars on 
the premises. 

The impoverished ore is then washed over "concen- 
trators," machines with endless sheets of india-rubber 
running in an opposite direction to the flow of water. 
The heavier particles of ore cling to the india-rubber, 
while the sand is carried away by the water. This gives 
a mixture of metals, which is sent to California to be 
smelted. All the machinery was American. The English 
cannot make mining machines to compete with Ameri- 
cans, owing to their want of experience. The Drum- 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 57 

lummon Mine is principally a gold mine — 60 per cent, 
gold to 40 per cent, silver. 

After a cup of tea with Mrs. Bayliss, we started 
at four o'clock, and arrived in Helena at 6.40. Our 
driver was very chatty ; he told us thirty years ago 
he was so far gone in consumption that the doctors 
said he could not live a month. He came ofif at 
once to Helena, to try the mountain air as his last 
chance, and he had become quite strong, though he still 
had a nasty cough, and had married and lived as if in 
ordinary health, except that he could not do indoor work. 
He was quite well even in their desperate winter weather, 
with thirty and forty degrees of frost. Helena, he told 
us, was a friendly, sociable, little place, nobody at all 
proud, not even the sixteen millionaires who are the 
boast of the town. Everything is very dear, and wages 
very high. A bricklayer gets seven dollars a day ; 
l^x. Bayliss has to pay his black cook forty dollars a 
month, and he told us the man who pulled us on the 
tram-car got about 250/. a year in our money. Lately 
a newly-arrived clergyman thought it was only right to 
get up a fund for the relief of the poor and the congre- 
gation took up the idea heartily, collected 1600 dollars, 
formed a Committee, and then could not meet with any 
one who would receive the money. The hero of Helena 
is Mr. Kruse who discovered the Drumlummon Mine. 
This is his history as told to me, and it is the history of 
hundreds of men, except for his extraordinary good 
luck. He starts off with a pony, a sack of flour, a piece 
of bacon and a pick, and for months he prospects for 



58 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

gold. Nobody will trust him with half a dollar, for he 
is a low drunken fellow. One day he sticks his pick in 
the ground and props himself on it, to eat his bacon, 
gets up to go away and notices that his pick has knocked 
up some gold quartz. He sticks up a mark to show 
that he has been there, goes off, registers his claim, and 
sells a quarter of his find for 2,000,000 dollars, builds a 
fine house and marries the prettiest girl in Helena, and 
the whole country round attends his wedding feast. 

Tuesday, September nth. — Left Helena at 9.15 a.m. 
We passed through the Rockies by the Mullen Tunnel. 
After this we constantly saw Chinese working on the line 
as plate-layers, &c. It seems that the North Pacific Rail- 
way are having disturbances about employing Chinese 
cheap labour, and the white men are calling on the state 
authorities to forbid it. In Pierce County the farmers 
are in need of Chinese labour to take the place of the 
Indians, who generally come in swarms at the hop- 
picking season, but from some unknown cause have not 
come this year. White labourers could not be procured in 
sufficient number, but the State will not allow the Chinese 
to come, and the magnificent hop crop will be lost. 

The railroad goes through an Indian reservation, the 
Flatheads, and from the train we saw many fishing or 
standing by their wigwams. Once when the train had 
stopped, an Indian galloped past, first on the line and 
then up the steep rocky bank, without slackening pace, 
like a cat. He seemed to have a very loose seat, but 
they are said to be perfect horsemen. As the scenery 
was very fine we sat on the platform at the back of the 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 59 

carriage all day. The run along the Clark's Fork of the 
Columbia River is exceedingly beautiful^ much finer 
than any river I know. Very high cliffs, often covered 
with golden moss and many sharp curves, the broad 
beautiful river sometimes widening into lakes and some- 
times crushed into narrow gorges. At Heron we had 
to change carriages to get into the Tacoma sleeping- 
car. There was a great crowd and a rush but we cir- 
cumvented the Yankees and secured two lower berths. 

Wed?iesday, September 12th. — Was not a happy day. 
A baby screamed for eleven hours without ceasing. 
Then we had no dinner, for at Ellensburgh a large 
Republican convention arrived, carrying brooms with 
which they meant to, and afterwards did, " make a clean 
sweep," and they devoured everything on the dining- 
car. We were alarmed when first we saw them and we 
made at once for the cook and asked him if there would 
be enough. He first inquired were they Republicans or 
Democrats, for, he said, the Republicans eat most, but 
the Democrats drink most. We got nothing until supper- 
time except a handful of broken biscuits, crackers they 
call them. It would have been quite easy for the 
cook to procure more food from the large stations we 
passed but that it is not the way in America. 

They are a patient people, and put up with the worst 
train service ever heard of, something like the Scotch 
service on August loth and nth. 

Trains are almost invariably behind time, hours being 
wasted at roadside stations without apparent cause, or 
trainssometimes creeping on over level ground atthe rate 



6o Five Months' Fine Weather 

of six or eight miles an hour. The pace from Pasco 
Junction to Yakima was not equal to that of an ordi- 
nary tram-car and unfortunately there was no scenery. 
We passed some nice bits later in the day when crossing 
the Rockies. We saw the beginning and the end of the 
old Switchback Railway that goes over the top of the 
mountain, used before the tunnel was constructed, now 
only used if the tunnel is blocked, as it is very steep and 
dangerous. As soon as we reached the western slopes 
the country became beautifully green, with hop-grounds 
and forests of fine trees. Here we first saw the forest fires, 
which spoil the scenery very much, not only by destroy- 
ing and blackening the timber, but by the smoke, which 
has the effect of a fog. Many are lighted by sparks 
from the engines or by fires left burning by squatters 
and spread by the wind, but many are started by natural 
causes, it is said by the dry boughs rubbing against 
each other. We arrived at last at Tacoma, where there is 
an excellent hotel. 

The town of Tacoma is very prettily situated on 
Puget Sound, with the lovely snow-topped Mount 
Tacoma standing solitary in the background. This 
district is misty, and often people stay a week at 
Tacoma without discovering the mountain, but we 
luckily had the pleasure of his company most of the 
time we were there. It is a baby town, not yet on any 
map, but has already some good shops and pleasant 
dwellings. The small wooden houses are running up 
like mushrooms. The new comer orders a house as he 
would a coat, and it is ready by the end of the week. 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 6i 

The steamer from Tacoma to Vancouver started at 
3 p.m., and stopped all night at Seattle, another baby- 
town, which is the most prosperous of all, as coal and 
iron have been found in the vicinity. The English 
Moss Bay Iron Company is starting large works there, 
and the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway will 
soon be finished, and will connect the town with the 
North Pacific Railroad. There is a large hotel, the 
Occidental, where we got an excellent dinner, after 
roaming through the streets and admiring the pros- 
perous, busy, go-ahead little place.^ We slept in our 
cabin, because the boat started about 4.30 a.m., and 
amused ourselves for an hour by throwing things into 
the water to see the phosphorus. Next day we had a 
very disagreeable, foggy journey, and arrived two hours 
late at Vancouver, so that we could get no dinner, only 
tea and cold food, although Vancouver Hotel is one of 
the best in America. It was only by chance that we 
got our luggage, as I happened to be sitting on my box 
when the man came to take it on shore, and I asked if 
it were going to be examined by the Customs' officers 
on board. He told me all baggage was to be taken 
into custody until Monday. I explained that we had 
nothing with us except our boxes, no grips, so the 
officer very kindly examined ours at once. Next 
day, Sunday, was foggy and disagreeable, but we were 
satisfied to rest, as we had secured a cosy sitting-room. 
There we met an English clergyman who had just 
returned from the Alaska Expedition and was much 
' The whole town was burnt down a few months after our visit. 



62 Five Months' Fine Weather 

delighted with it. His accounts of the scenery were 
most tempting, but it proved too late for us to go, as it 
is very cold up there. 

Vancouver, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
road, is the rival of Tacoma, the terminus on Puget Sound 
of the North Pacific Railroad. Tacoma has the advantage 
of a second great route, the Shasta, to San Francisco, and 
has a richer district at the back of it, besides being equal 
to Vancouver as a port. Certainly Tacoma seemed more 
prosperous, as houses there could not be run up fast 
enough, while in Vancouver there were numbers to let. 
Formerly this little village was called Fort Moody, a 
better name than Vancouver, which is a source of 
trouble and mistakes, owing to its being the name of 
the important island close by. We were told that Lady 
Burdett Coutts had presented a peal of bells to Van- 
couver. I forget which she meant them for, but the 
wrong place had got them, and meant keeping them. 
There were shoals of Chinese and many shops of 
their curios. We were making a few purchases, when 
we were astonished at hearing our name, and there 
was actually a former constituent settled in Vancouver, 
and prosperous. 

We went to see the s.s. Batavia, just arrived from 
China with emigrants for the States. They were packed 
like herrings and were a horrid-looking lot. 

People give them a bad name up here, but afterwards 
I heard them well spoken of. I fancy they are very 
badly treated. Sometimes, we were told, the Chinese 
get obstreperous on the voyage. Then they are bat- 



in Canada^ WesteTu U.S., and Mexico. 63 

tened down and the steam hose turned on. They pay 
fifty dollars each for their wretched accommodation. I 
tried hard to buy a joss direct from an emigrant. Of 
course there are plenty in the shops, but I thought if I 
could get a true joss direct from a believer, it would 
bring me luck, and I wanted one of the funny ones 
which fold up into lockets, and are hung round the 
neck, but nobody would part with one. 

We had a splendid drive in the park, which is simply 
a piece of primeval forest, with good roads cut through it. 
The trees are enormous, and moss grows on the lower 
branches like wool on sheep. There were very it'^fj living 
things; a few rooks and chipunmaks, some gigantic slugs 
and a frog were all we saw, but bears and deer are 
plentiful inland. At one point we had to walkthrough 
a narrow path amongst the big ferns which cover the 
ground, to see the biggest tree of all, which is more 
than thirty feet round the trunk and immensely tall. 
The shell beach is another of the great features of the 
park. It is a large piece of ground near the water, 
which is formed yards deep of nothing but shells. Im- 
mense trees, most of them seventy feet high, and some 
probably more, are growing on this great shell bed. It 
is used to mend the roads like gravel, numbers of carts 
were taking it away for that purpose. 

The drive round the park is ten miles long, with 
lovely views on to English Bay, the Narrows, and Bur- 
rard's Inlet. The mountains on the other side of the 
water, opposite Vancouver, with the white Mission vil- 
lage on the shore, are very pretty. As we approached 



64 Five Months' Fine Weather 

the town we saw a boatful of Indians bring some deer 
they had shot to sell for a dollar a piece. I regret to 
say that a few hours afterwards we saw them helplessly 
drunk. It is strictly forbidden under heavy penalties to 
sell spirits to the Indians, but they get them somehow. 

Tuesday, September ?>th. — We started for Banff, 648 
miles east, at 12.45 P-"i' When past Wharnock we 
got a magnificent view of Mount Baker, a lofty, snow- 
covered mountain, standing alone, like Mount Tacoma. 
It is sixty miles off, on U.S. territory. The scenery 
was pretty from the first, but the grand part began at 
Yale, and from there to Banff, so far as we could see, 
there was not a mile where the scenery was not ex- 
traordinarily beautiful. The line crosses four ranges of 
mountains, the Cascade, the Gold, the Selkirks, and the 
Rockies. It is always night, unfortunately, when the 
Gold range is crossed. All the way, except at a few 
large stations, there is hardly a trace of human habita- 
tion except the people working on the line and here 
and there a small timber place and, very rarely, a 
squatter's miserable hut and bit of clearing, and a few 
Indians. It must have been a very difficult road to 
make, and is a great triumph of engineering. We, on 
the last carriage, often saw the engines and front car- 
riages on the curves in front of us — once we saw the two 
engines and seven carriages ahead of us. The Fraser 
Canon begins at Yale, the scenery of which is described 
as " ferocious." It is very wild and grand, but I think 
the Thompson Canon, which we passed after bed-time, 
is still more terrible. Perhaps the moonlight increased 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 65 

the effect. We had a good supper at the little hotel at 
North Bend. Next morning I was up at five o'clock, 
and got a glimpse of the reddest sunrise I ever saw. 
The heavens seemed to be on fire. Unfortunately, just 
then the train was running due east. Breakfast was on 
a dining-car and was very good. There cannot be any- 
thing finer in the world than the run this day, with such 
diversity of scenery, all wild. Lovely lakes, glorious 
snow mountains, grand rocks, wild streams dashing in 
perpetual rapids and many whirlpools to join immense 
rivers, and forests wherever trees can find foothold. 
The gorge of the lUecilliwaat is very narrow, and about 
ten minutes past Albert Caiion station the train stops 
to allow passengers to go into a balcony and. look down 
three hundred feet to the river. Tlien comes the steepest 
rise, where a big eight-wheeled coupled engine pushes 
the train, and we Had great excitement over the break- 
ing of the iron pin fastening the bar and coupling it to 
our carriage. A young engineer had been explaining 
to us all that this arrangement was most dangerous, and 
when the broken pin went whizzing past his head, he 
was wild with delight at the confirmation of his opinion. 
After passing through miles of snow-sheds and much 
zigzagging, on account of the steep ascent, we reached 
Glacier, where we dined, and where we would willingly 
have spent a week, so beautiful is it, surrounded by snow 
mountains with glaciers in every direction. The 
highest peak is named after our kind friend " Sir 
Donald " (Smith) ; it is a rocky tooth far away in the 
sky. The road rises some way after Glacier and then 

F 



66 Five Months' Fine Weather - 

descends rapidly. We came soon to one of the most 
beautiful views I ever saw. The mountain-side is very 
steep, as are all the surrounding mountains, and covered 
with pine-trees, and we looked down from the train, 
almost a bird's-eye view, into a magnificent valley full 
of bright green pines and firs and yellow cotton-wood 
trees and the Beaver river meandering quietly through 
it. The whole valley was filled with a slight haze of 
smoke from forest fires, of which there were plenty of 
small ones near the line, but later on we came to the 
enormous fire which caused the smoke. It seemed to 
cover many acres of forest. After dark we passed many 
fires, but none so large as this. The rain that fell while 
we were at Vancouver had extinguished many of them. 
They brought that perpetually recurring ten shillings 
for chips at home to my mind. After passing through 
the narrow gorge bridged in one place by a fallen tree, 
down which the Beaver river runs to join the Columbia, 
we ran a long way on the level, having the Selkirks on 
one side and the Rockies on the other, and then we 
ascended the Rockies to Field, where we supped. After 
that, all was dark until we reached Banff at 11.30 p.m. 

Banff is 4500 feet above sea-level, and there is a 
good hotel, for which all supplies have to be brought 
from Winnipeg. There were only twenty-five guests 
on account of the lateness of the season, as snow may 
come any day. In July and August there are some- 
times 120 visitors in the hotel, besides numbers living 
in tents and wooden huts, and no doubt, when this 
delicious place is better known, it will become the 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 67 

Switzerland of America. The first afternoon and the 
morning of the second day were rainy, but not bad 
enough to prevent our visiting the pretty bits close 
to the hotel, i.e. the Falls of the Bow river and the 
Pontoon bridge. The mountains which surround the 
valley were glorious with fresh snow. Some are very 
loft}^, some are bare rocks, some wooded a long way 
up, and the autumn tints were very fine, especially 
the brilliant yellow cotton-wood trees. The Canadian 
National Park occupies the whole valley, which is in 
shape something like a star-fish, with the hotel in the 
centre. It is far more beautiful than the American 
Yellowstone Park, and is much recommended as a 
health resort on account of the pure bracing air. It 
is quite out of the mining district, so there were no 
specimens about, and no miners with their amusing 
tales of their successes and disappointments. 

One of the most interesting tales was told us by a 
Scotchman on the Seattle boat. He was a railway 
man by trade, but whenever he had made a little money 
he had set off to the gold district to "prospect." Some- 
times he had done well, but once he found a very rich 
vein and sank a shaft and found it grew richer as he got 
lower, so he spent on it all he had and all he could 
borrow. The fame of it spread, and many wanted to 
share his venture and offered good prices for the half or 
the quarter, but nothing would induce him to part with 
the smallest fraction. This time he thought he would 
become a colossal millionaire. Suddenly, to his horror, 
the vein ceased. It ran straight into the earth in the 

F 2 



68 Five Months' Fine Weather 

form of a V and he had just hit the centre of it, so, 
besides losing all he had saved, he had to work for 
months to repay what he had borrowed. 

Another amusing mine story was of one that promised 
well but turned out badly, so the owners put up large 
engines, and arranged somehow to cart and train 
regularly to a certain point a large quantity of rich ore, 
which was reported in the newspapers, and then secretly 
carried back to the mine. Then the owners went to 
New York and sold the mine to a company for two 
millions. 

Saturday^ September 22?id. — We took a carriage for 
the whole day and drove first to the Devil's Head Lake, 
nine miles off, getting back to lunch. Happily the day 
was magnificent and the rain had put out the forest fires, 
so that the views were quite clear. It was a very pretty 
drive up a valley due east to the lake, which runs thir- 
teen miles, but unfortunately turns a corner, so one 
only sees the beginning of it. It is all shades of blue 
and green, according to depth, light, and shadow, and 
sparkles like diamonds in the sunshine. The colouring 
of the trees and rocks, and the peculiar red tinge of the 
turf make a wonderful picture. The Devil's Head is a 
rock on a mountain close by. We could not see any 
likeness to a head at all. On our return, we stopped to 
look at a shop said to be kept by a man from South 
Kensington Museum, but I am sure Professor Flower 
would faint if he saw those atrociously stuffed birds and 
beasts. There was a live beaver in a box outside, baking 
in the sun, which seemed very unhappy. 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico, 69 

After lunch we drove in the opposite direction to a 
sulphur spring, high up on the mountain-side, where 
there is a small hotel with baths. The view from it is 
very fine down a valley opposite : another ray of the 
star-fish. Then downhill again to the Grotto, a hot 
spring in what looks like the cone of an extinct geyser. 
It is reached through a long underground corridor, the 
platform being over the stream that carries away the 
water from the spring, and at the end is a place to bathe 
from, though how any one can enter such a gloomy 
pool, only lighted by a hole in the far-away roof, I can- 
not imagine. From there we went to the station to 
inquire about the freight train that was to take us back 
to Field next day, so that we might get the scenery by 
daylight, and that settled, we went down the valley 
past the Bow Falls and past a mountain whence an 
immense mass of rock fell about six weeks ago at 1 1 p.m., 
frightening everybody by the terrible noise. This is a 
very pretty valley, and Mr. Van Home and other gen- 
tlemen connected with the Canadian Pacific Railroad 
have selected very choice lots down by the river to 
build. They can only get leases of the land, because 
it is national property. 

Sunday, September 2yd. — We started by freight train 
for Field at 12.30 p.m. The guard was exceedingly 
kind and gave us the view seats in the tower of his van 
and pointed things out to us. When we looked for him 
and his man at Field with a view to tips they were no- 
where to be found. It was a marvellous journey ; such 
cliffs and precipices, and such gradients. A second 



70 Five Months' Fine Weather 

engine of great size and power held us back on the 
descent, besides a break on every carriage, and the 
guard admitted that if once the train got its head there 
would be nothing for it but to jump off. Everywhere on 
the Canadian Pacific Railway the greatest care is taken, 
and every possible precaution and safeguard are used, 
and constant vigilance. I counted fifty roadmen at 
work between Field and Donald, a distance of fifty 
miles. The hotel at Field is small and rather earwiggy, 
but very fair. Unfortunately, there is nothing to do, as 
there is no walk to take, unless one goes up or down the 
line, or up the side of the cliff. We were desperately 
hungry, because the sandwiches we brought from the 
Banff Hotel were made of such coarse salt bacon we 
could not eat them, but we had to wait until long past 
seven o'clock for dinner because the cook was out for a 
walk. The east-bound train rushed in, supped, and 
disappeared in the darkness, making one feel very 
lonely. There was only one other guest — a Mr. 
De Wolff, who is running a mine in Mt. Stephen, 1200 
feet above the railway, in connection with smelting 
works at Vancouver. His idea is that in course of time 
many mines ^Xvill be started in this district, and all the 
smelting will be done in Vancouver. 

Next day we joined the west-bound express at 
9.10 a.m., and spent the day on the platform at the end 
of the train enjoying the glorious scenery. Dined at 
Glacier, and supped on the dining-car. We were for- 
tunate in getting two comfortable lower berths, but we 
rose early to see the Thompson Caiion, which we had 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 71 

passed by starlight on our way up. To our disgust the 
morning proved foggy, so we did not see all of it, but 
what we did see was very wild. The train crawls along 
a shelf cut in the steep mountain side, hundreds of feet 
above the mad, whirling, dashing river. Much of the 
line between Banff and the flat district near the sea is 
made on such steep slopes of drift, or clay, or sand, that 
the greatest, unceasing precaution is necessary to get 
along safely. Men go over the line just ahead of every 
train to see that all is right, no slip occurred, and 
nothing fallen from above, and at times the train only 
goes about five miles an hour. Luckily this is generally 
when the scenery is finest. All day it was fine. The 
Fraser river was our constant companion nearly all the 
way. First a torrent dashing through narrow gorges 
amongst lofty mountains, it finally widens into a broad 
river. In the wild part there were terrible rapids and 
whirlpools, where the water appeared to be twelve to 
twenty feet higher at the sides than in the troughs. The 
Indians manage to get about between the many dan- 
gers in their little boats, salmon fishing. The Fraser 
river is full of salmon, which the Indians catch and dry 
on little platforms in the sun or with fire under. We 
saw some of them in a little canoe going through a very 
dangerous bit of river to a rock in the middle, where 
they had a salmon net. Canning salmon is a great in- 
dustry all along the coast, as the rivers are full of them. 
We once saw a whole train-load go off east. Sometimes 
an Indian catches a dog-salmon, a fine-looking fish, but 
unfit for food. If he thinks he will not be found out, he 



72 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

cans it, to the disappointment of some poor creatures 
far away. We never got any salmon equal to British or 
Irish salmon — the flavour is inferior. Mount Baker 
was at its best again, as the day was so fine, and we had 
a delightful journey back to Vancouver. This Canadian 
Pacific Railroad trip is worth all the trouble of coming 
to America. We could spend a month at Banff, there 
is so much to do and see for which we had not time, 
and from many of the other stations interesting trips 
can be made by boat on the Columbia River, or into 
the neighbouring valleys, besides unlimited opportunities 
for mountain climbing. 

Wednesday^ September 26th. — We rested and enjoyed 
the comforts of the hotel and visited a timber-mill 
where very large logs are cut. The largest we saw cut 
was forty-two inches by twenty-five inches, but they 
have been made there twenty-four inches square by 
one hundred and eighteen feet long. These long balks 
are for the Chinese market. The cutting is done by 
two circular saws five feet in diameter, one above and 
a little in advance of the other, working together. 
They can thus cut logs up to four feet six inches in 
diameter. Most of the machinery was old-fashioned. 
The finest thing there was an Indian workman, a 
magnificent fellow, tall, strong, and graceful as a panther. 
His face was very peculiar, a long hooked nose and 
straight wide mouth, with a strong line each side. He 
would make a perfect Mephistopheles, and would not 
need to go on tiptoes when he wanted to be impres- 
sive. He was wonderfully solemn generally, but in 



in Canada, Wesiej^n U.S., and Mexico. jt^ 

the pauses of the work he turned to make quite 
Mephistophelian gestures to his friends, and then his 
face became all grin. I watched him a long time. He 
was the finest Indian I ever saw. Generally they are 
short and ugly, the women very coarse. 

Thursday, September 2'jtJi. — The park we visited the 
previous week was formally opened by the mayor. 
Forty carriages of all kinds went in procession, all 
decked out with flags, of which, I regret to say, there 
were as many American as British. We left Vancouver 
by the 2.30 boat for Victoria. As we waited for the 
Canadian Pacific Railway express to come in, we saw a 
train-load of sand very rapidly emptied on to the pier 
by a sand plough. The wooden piles of the pier are 
constantly destroyed under water by a worm called the 
torrido, which makes a hole, at first no larger than a 
darning needle, but as the worm grows, so the hole 
enlarges to the size of a man's finger — many remedies 
were tried to destroy the worm, but nothing succeeded 
except creosote, which is too expensive, so now the 
piles are being surrounded by sand. We had a delightful 
passage to Victoria. To our astonishment Mt. Baker 
reappeared when we had got some way from land, and 
we passed through a school of whales spouting and 
leaping occasionally out of the water. Paget Sound is 
full of large islands, very like the Thousand Islands, 
but on a grander scale. When evening came on, after 
a fine sunset glow, the stars shone out in thousands. 
It is curious that often there is very little colour at 
sunset in the west, but a splendid glow in the east. 



74 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

We arrived at Victoria at nine o'clock. The electric 
lights were visible long before we arrived, and by them 
we were able to notice what a roundabout entrance 
there is to the harbour. We walked to the Driard 
Hotel, of which we had heard much, but were dis- 
appointed, as the cooking is very inferior. The rooms 
were good. Victoria is a pretty place, with a nice park 
and a Chinese quarter, where we managed to do a little 
shopping by signs. We also bought at an English 
shop some Indian carvings in black stone. It is a kind of 
slate and is only found on the Hydahs Indian reservation. 
In Vancouver Island we saw very funny-looking Indians. 
The great excursion is to Esquimaux, the British 
naval station and headquarters of the Pacific fleet. 
It is quite at the mercy of any enemy who might take 
a fancy to it. There were plenty of old-fashioned 
muzzle-loading guns and even two six-inch breech- 
loading guns, but none of them 'were mounted and the 
carriages were safely put away in the stores. There is 
a large graving-dock and a small machine-shop for 
repairs, built by the Canadian Government. We drove 
back by the Gorge, a pretty bit, where an arm of the 
sea winds up like a river. A kingfisher was in posses- 
sion of the place. At night we got on board the s.s. 
T. J. Potter and slept in our cabin, as she sailed at 
4 a.m. The Custom officer awoke us at six o'clock, but 
passed our luggage without examination, so I think he 
might have let us sleep. At eight o'clock we stopped 
at Port Townsend, another baby town, very prosperous, 
placed at the extreme end of the peninsula that 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 75 

separates Puget Sound from the sea, on American 
territory. The whole peninsula is one dense forest, 
which has been bought up by a large company in San 
Francisco, greatly to the annoyance of local folk. It 
seems no single person or firm may legally take up 
from the State more than a certain quantity of land, 
but this company gets people to claim and take up, 
and then buys from them, and is powerful and clever 
enough to hold its own. Here we saw a horrid creature, 
a great octopus, clinging to a pile of the landing-stage. 
We thought there was another further back under the 
platform, and there were also some enormous white sea 
anemones or fungi, some feet below the water, so that 
we could not see them clearly. Port Townsend expects 
to be eventually the great port of this district ; it is 
nearest the ocean, and all boats going to Vancouver and 
Tacoma must pass it, but at present it has no railway 
nearer than Tacoma. 

At Seattle we changed from the Potter, which 
remained there until 3.30, to the Hasseto, a ricketty old 
boat with a large stern paddle-wheel, which started at 
once. We wanted to catch the night-train for Port- 
land "and had to pick up some of our goods at the 
Tacoma Hotel, but when we arrived we were told the 
train was four hours late, so we decided to stay all 
night at the hotel. Next day we learnt a train had 
been sent off at the usual time with the local traffic. 
That is always the way in America, it is impossible to 
obtain information. We should have been glad to take 
the night-train, because the run to Portland is very 



76 Five Months Fine Weather 

ugly and flat. The railway company is reclaiming a 
piece of shore at Tacoma by putting out a pier, and 
filling in the space between pier and shore by washing 
down the hill-side into it with a powerful stream of 
water through a hose- pipe. This interested us, because 
it was the system employed formerly in hydraulic gold- 
mining, now forbidden, on account of the damage caused 
by the debris, which covered the lower country and 
ruined the agriculture. 

After a weary journey, nothing interesting, not even 
the ferry across the Columbia River, with slight rain 
all day and much mist, we arrived at Portland at 
2.30 p.m. We had been told over and over again that 
it was very late in the season for fine weather in this 
district, that if rain once set in it would probably go on 
for months, so, as it had set in and looked as if it 
meant continuing, and as, moreover, we learnt that the 
Northern Pacific train had been delayed two days on 
account of a burnt bridge, and we should have our 
train to ourselves, we decided to go on at once and 
miss the Columbia River. Portland looked very doleful 
as we drove to the hotel for letters, quite in vain, and 
the cabman made us pay an extravagant fare. Port- 
land seems to be a declining city, killed by its new rivals 
on Puget Sound. Perhaps sunshine would have altered 
its appearance, but it looked quite mouldy and for- 
gotten, the streets empty and forlorn. 

We had a very comfortable journey to San Francisco 
in the almost empty car. Teas and breakfasts on car, 
and dinner at Sissons. There was an interesting negro 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. jy 

in charge of the car, who wanted, as so many do, to 
come to England, where they think they will escape 
the contempt shown for their race by Americans. 
This man was born in the Bahamas, and had been in 
charge of some lower department in a place of business 
or warehouse in New York. One young fellow after 
another had come under him, learnt from him, and been 
passed over his head. At last he went to the " Boss," 
and asked him if he were not to be advanced. "Im- 
possible," said the master, " except porter, there is 
nothing else open to you because of your colour." So 
he left, but found it the same everywhere. I did not 
know what to say to him, there are so few negroes in 
England that they are looked upon as curiosities, and 
there are plenty of our own people to do the work. 
He gave a terrible account of their condition in Cali- 
fornia. He said they could expect no justice against 
a white man ; no Court would decide in favour of a 
coloured man whatever the case might be. A white 
conductor went further than this. He said all justice 
was sold. A rich man might do anything he liked, 
from murder downwards, with impunity. This opinion 
we heard again and again from Californians, and indeed 
pretty well all over the States. As far as I could judge 
from their own accounts, Mr. Bryce's book is simply 
a pretty picture of what things ought to be ; but in fact 
there is but one judge and one law, the almighty dollar. 
My black friend meant to go back to the Bahamas 
when he had saved a little money. There, he said, a 
man was a man whatever his colour, and respected 



78 Five Months' Fine Weather 

according to his conduct ; everything was open to all, 
and coloured men might be soldiers or policemen, or 
anything they were fit for. We often found men in 
America who looked forward to returning to Australia as 
a happier country than the United States. It is a great 
trouble to genuine Americans that recent comers do not 
amalgamate with them and become one people. The 
Irish are of course the worst, for they are not only most 
interested in Irish affairs, but they use their political 
power as American citizens to forward their plans and 
intrigues in the old country ; but the Germans also 
remain Germans, and congregate together and keep up 
home associations and their attachment to the Father- 
land, and the English^ too, are said to keep themselves 
together, and never forget the land of their birth. 

The journey from Portland to San Francisco occu- 
pied a night, a day and a night. There is very pretty 
scenery. Mount Shasta, a glorious snow-covered giant, 
was visible all the morning, but, unfortunately, was 
clouded over when we were at Sissons, which lies just 
at its foot. There is a long and difficult rise to Sissons, 
3555 feet above sea-level. Often we could see the line 
doubling on its track four and five times. A young 
fellow got out at a station on the hill-side, and went 
straight up to a station some way above, arriving 
as soon as the train, but quite exhausted. The descent 
is more gradual and is through a great grazing country, 
partitioned into immense estates, and covered with 
fine horses and cattle. Then the train gets into the 
Sacramento Valley, which might have been made for 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 79 

its accommodation, and follows it until dark, passing 
some curious rocks looking as if giants had com- 
menced to build there, something, I suppose, like the 
pillars of Staffa, and a delicious cascade, that falls over 
banks of moss under drooping trees — a fairy spot. It 
was at Red Bluff, on this line, that I met the first 
beggar I had seen in America. 

Tuesday, October 2nd. — We reached San Francisco 
at nine o'clock, an hour late, on a foggy morning, and 
were disgusted with the difficulties of the arrival. We 
had to get out of the train at Oakland Pier, and wait 
until all the luggage was transferred, before getting 
into the immense ferry-boat, which took us across in 
half an hour to San Francisco. Here we landed on a 
tumble-down, dirty platform, and went through shabby 
wooden buildings amongst a crowd of screaming, 
hustling hotel-touters, who knocked us down and 
trampled upon us and tore us to pieces. Of course we 
had checked all our baggage (25 cents each), and, avoid- 
ing the hotel 'bus (25 cents each), took the cable car 
(5 cents each) to the door of the Palace Hotel. This 
is, on the whole, a good hotel, though the service in the 
restaurant is very bad, and I should think the drainage 
doubtful. Perhaps we should have done better if we had 
taken our meals in the table-d'hote room. Here we 
tasted terrapin. It was like minced mutton with an in- 
numerable quantity of small bones. Squab, we found, is 
only American for pigeon, and Californian champagne is 
very bad for the price, but so were all the Californian 
wines, Zinfandeln, &c., we got at the hotel ; but it is 



So Five Months' Fine Weather 

said some of them^ when got from the wine-merchants, 
are really quite good. The principal thing to do in 
San Francisco is to loaf about China-town, visit the 
Joss-house, a dark room up a very steep staircase over 
a chemist's, with some huge idols and some finely carved 
and coloured shrines with candles burning before them, 
Roman Catholic fashion ; and make desperate attempts 
to see the views from different points. Our experience 
was that, however fine the morning, as soon as we 
came within a quarter of an hour of any point we 
were making for, a great sea-fog rolled in and swallowed 
up everything. We managed to see the sea-lions, an 
inferior kind of seal without fur, which dwell in multi- 
tudes on a rock opposite the dirty Cliff House Restau- 
rant, and we heard them bark. They make a great 
noise. From there, too, we first caught a glimpse of the 
Pacific Ocean, not much, on account of the fog. We 
had miles of cable car, and "dummy engine" train, 
on this round. The country is all sand dunes, and 
this road goes past great tracts of cemeteries. The 
Freemasons have their own, the Odd Fellows theirs, 
anything to distinguish one man from his brother worm. 
Friendly societies are more thought of here than with 
us. Men wear little brooches to show that they belong 
to certain societies — even the President of the American 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers wore a little 
brooch to make people aware of the fact. The variety of 
these badges is endless, some gentlemen wearing several 
at once. We visited the United States Mint where we 
saw nothing new, but we learnt something new about 



in Canada, Western U.S.^ and Mexico. 81 

our old neighbours in Swansea. The official guide, in 
his speech to a large party of visitors, after describing 
how as much as possible was got out of the ores here, 
continued, " The refuse metal is then sent on to Swan- 
sea, where labour is at 5 cents a day ! " 

Colonel Taylor took us to the Fire Station to see the 
twelve o'clock drill. At the electric signal the horses 
rush to their places in front of the car, the men come 
sliding down poles instead of down the staircase, and all 
is ready in two and a half seconds. I was disappointed 
with the btisiness. The firemen did not even take their 
places on the car, nothing was done at all except harness 
the horses. The harness is hung over the car and when 
the horses take their places it drops on to them, leaving 
nothing to be done except to buckle the belly strap and 
clinch the collar clasp. Then, too, it was not a fire 
engine at all, it was only a salvage car. These things 
are all over-described. Edward being much interested 
in the cable cars, we visited several of the stations to 
see the engines at work and how the whole thing was 
done. There is nothing pleasanter to travel by, or 
quicker, or safer when they have a fair chance ; but I 
must say when we were in a car that dashed like light- 
ning down an incline much too steep for horse cars and 
saw other cable cars tearing along towards us at right 
angles along cross streets, so that the slightest mistake 
on the part of either driver would dash the two cars into 
each other; I felt less charmed with them. The longest 
cable is 36,000 feet, the steepest incline i in 5.V, the 
price 5 cents everywhere. This 5 cent piece is the 

(; 



82 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

lowest coin in circulation in California ; coppers can 
only be used to buy postage stamps. 

Colonel Grey, formerly chief engineer to the Northern 
Pacific Railway, took Edward to see the Union Iron 
Works, a large shipbuilding yard with a hydraulic 
graving-dock. They were building two fast cruisers for 
the U.S. Government to go nineteen and a half knots 
an hour, and carry two 8-inch and six 6-inch guns. 
No armour plating except a protected deck over the 
machinery. 

It was during our stay in San Francisco that Mr. 
Cleveland finally decided on the exclusion of the 
Chinese, to the great delight of everybody except the 
Chinese themselves, on whom it fell so unexpectedly 
that two thousand were said to be even then on their 
way to San Francisco, many of them having resided 
there before, but all were to be refused admittance. 

Travellers are told that Chinatown is full of bad 
characters, and that it is not safe to go there after dark 
without police escort, but this seems to be only a means 
of extorting money. Nothing does ever happen to the 
inquisitive tourist. Most of those who employ the 
Chinese speak well of them. On the railways it is 
found necessary to put them in gangs under Chinese 
heads, as they quarrel with white overlookers, but they 
work steadily^and never strike. That is probably their 
great fault in the eyes of the American workman. 
They make good private servants, too. Colonel Grey 
told us he had had a Chinese butler in his service 
thirteen years, with complete charge of the wine and the 



■to 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 83 

silver. Twice the man had been summoned home by 
his mother ; the first time, because she thought it time 
for him to take a wife, and the second time, because she 
thought it only right he should come to visit his wife 
and see his child — each time he was away six months. 
It seems grandmother first and then mother rule in 
Chinese families. Another less pleasing anecdote told 
us as true, was of a Chinese servant who, after fourteen 
years' satisfactory service in one family, went into a 
violent passion over nothing particular, pulled out his 
knife, and killed three people. 

" Johnny," as he is called, looks very good-tempered 
and cheerful. Still I sympathize with the Americans in 
wanting to get rid of them. So far there has been free 
trade in labour and nothing else, and the land is being 
filled with strange races. We were told that the horrible 
low Poles, Russians, &c., who swarm into London and 
our manufacturing towns, fill all the works in the big 
Eastern States manufacturing centres, and take very low 
wages, so that the natives are forced to go West. Still, 
I cannot think how California will get on without the 
Chinese, for now they do all the work, make the rail- 
roads and keep them in order, do the washing and the 
cooking, and most of the field-labour. 

With the assistance of a gentleman in business in San 
Francisco, Edward made a calculation as to the relative 
comfort and prosperity of the labouringclasses in England 
and California, taking into consideration on one hand 
the high wages paid, and on the other the extravagant 
prices of the necessaries of life. The result was^ that 

G 2 



84 Five Months' Fine Weather 

while a single man can live as well and save more money 
in California than he can in England, a married man 
with a family will be rather worse off. Rents are so 
high that many working men live in boarding-houses. 
Clerks, railway conductors, and people of that class 
rarely have houses of their own, because American 
women dislike housework. The woman, who in Eng- 
land would put her pride in her comfortable home, and 
would herself work to keep it clean and tidy, and pre- 
pare her husband's meals with loving hands, is in 
A.merica a fine lady with fashionable hat and stylish 
costume, and would not for a moment think of putting 
her hand to brush or kettle, it would seem to her a 
degradation, so they live at hotels or in boarding-houses 
with great expense and little comfort. 

The election excitement was very great all the time 
of our visit, and occasionally small processions in curious 
fancy uniforms with bands of music would look in at the 
hotel and give us a tune. Nobody seemed to pay any 
attention to these processions as they passed along the 
streets, there was no tail of cheering politicians. There 
is quite a different feeling about these things in America 
to what there is in England. The procession is not a 
popular demonstration — it is an advertisement. 

We never got to see the whole of the Golden Gate 
Park, We reached the band stand one Sunday after- 
noon, and found hundreds of carriages and a number 
of pedestrians listening to the music. Close by is a 
pleasing monument to the composer of the " Star- 
spangled Banner," the American National Air. The 
fog came pouring up from the ocean before we had 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. ^^ 

been there ten minutes, so we fled. The same afternooi? 
we took a car up a steep street and then got into a bit 
of waste ground on the top of a hill, from where we had 
a magnificent view of the Bay and the Golden Gate. 
The sun was setting gloriously, but still streams of fog 
were pouring across the Park, happily missing the town 
for once. We walked back down California Street and 
Nob Hill,.sometimes called Snob Hill, and saw the large 
houses of the millionaires, each with two entrances, one 
for use and the other as an excuse for an immense flight 
of steps. Our excursion to the Presidio, the military 
reservation, was as unlucky as that to the Golden Gate 
Park. We got some pretty views on the way, and 
admired the trim officers' quarters, but as soon as we 
started to walk to the particular view we had come for, 
the fog calmly rolled over the hill, and covered it up. 
The shops in San Francisco were very good, finer than 
any others we saw, but most to be admired was the 
extraordinary number of cake shops. People go to 
them for meals, just taking tea, cofiee or chocolate, and 
cake. We tried them once or twice for afternoon tea ; 
but that is not their object, they are for poor people to 
make a solid meal. In one shop the man told us they 
cut up fifty cakes a day. 

We left San Francisco in the evening, and arrived 
at Raymond, the end of the railway towards the 
Yosemite Valley, at 7 a.m., Tuesday, the 9th October, 
after a miserably cold night in the Pulman car. We 
had a wretched breakfast at the tiny hotel there, but, 
after that, all was well with us. We had secured 
the box seats on the coach for the whole journey. 



86 Five Months Fine Weather 

there and back. The drive to the White Soda Springs 
was pretty, winding through a forest. Here we got an 
excellent lunch, well cooked and pleasantly served 
by the landlord and his family. To my astonishment, 
I saw in the visitors' book that one of our party 
complained that he could not get enough to eat ! No 
doubt I have been as unjust in some of my criticisms. 
After leaving the White Soda Springs the scenery 
became very grand as we rose higher and higher on the 
mountain side. Occasionally there were glimpses of 
distant hills away towards the sea, but the valley and 
the opposite hills were sufficient of themselves to make 
the drive delightful. The finest distant view was from 
the top of a steep hill, at a place feelingly named by 
some pedestrian " Perspiration Point." The immense 
trees, oaks, cedars, and pines of different kinds, with the 
golden green moss on their trunks, and the bushes of 
all colours, with the variations of light and shadow 
on the ground as the sun shone through the trees, 
and the cloudless blue sky, were a good preparation 
for the grander beauties of the valley. We had a very 
pleasant, good-looking driver, Tommy Gordon, very 
careful at the dangerous corners. The roads are rough, 
so that we were pretty well shaken and tired. Poor 
hotel at Wawona. 

Wednesday, Oetoher loth. — We got up at five o'clock, 
according to orders, but could get no breakfast until 
6.40. We started about seven. Our new driver, Uriah 
Toby, was a big, handsome, solemn fellow, a very fine 
whip. We dashed down the steep hills and round the 



271 Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. Sy 

sharp corners at a splendid pace. I do not suppose we 
went any slower because of my delight in his prowess. 
His skill was wonderful. I spent the day with one eye 
on his driving, and one on the scenery. He must come 
of a Yorkshire stock. Certainly he was the best speci- 
men of the wild Westerners we met with during our 
journey. At first the road was much the same as on 
the previous day, except that the trees were finer, 
and the pine that bears enormous cones, up to sixteen 
and eighteen inches long, grows in this forest. Quail 
abounded larger than ours, also ground and grey squirrels, 
blue jays, and woodpeckers busy knocking holes in the 
trees and storing up acorns, sometimes killing the trees 
by the extent to which they honeycomb them. Fresh 
deer-tracks were on the road, and we were told rattle- 
snake were common. Indeed, Tommy Gordon's hat was 
decorated with the rattle of one he had killed on the 
roadside with his whip. After driving thirteen miles, 
and admiring the extensive view from Look-Out Point 
across the Merced Valley, and over row after row of 
hills towards the coast, we changed horses, then had 
two more miles up-hill, and then four miles' rapid 
descent to Inspiration Point, whence the first view of 
the Yosemite Valley is obtained, a view never to be 
forgotten. The beautiful photographs and enthusiastic 
descriptions can give but a very poor idea of its wonderful 
grandeur. The next point is called Artists' Point, 
because it is better for sketching. After a delightful 
rush down the hillside, and a long drive on the level, 
we reached the Stoneman House Hotel, quite good, at 



88 Five Months Fine Weather 

the end of the valley. We were much tired and shaken^ 
for the road is rough, being torn up by the constant 
traffic during the dry season. Toby niissed every stone 
and hole he could in a wonderful way, and he brought 
the coach down the hills and round the corners with 
admirable skill. Most of the way the road skirts preci- 
pices, like a Swiss road. The weather had been very 
hot ever since we left Raymond, and continued so until 
we reached Raymond again. So unfortunately, the cele- 
brated waterfalls, the Virgin's Tears and the Yosemite 
Falls, were absolutely dry, and the Bridal Veil had very 
little water. This is passed on the right soon after 
reaching the valley ; then the glorious rock of El Capitan, 
a straight wall three thousand three hundred feet high, 
perhaps the most beautiful object in the valley, is passed 
on the left ; the Cathedral Rock, the Cathedral Spires, 
the Sentinel Rock and Dome on the right, and the 
Three Brothers on the left. The Royal Arches, 
Washington Column, North Dome, Half Dome, and 
Glacier Point are well seen from the hotel. Unfortu- 
nately, the dust was so deep, walking was out of the 
question. We made a desperate attempt to reach Mirror 
Lake on foot, but had to give it up. The journey from 
Raymond to Clarkes, or Wawona, is forty miles, with 
four teams of four horses ; from Clarkes to the Stoncman 
Flotel is twenty-six miles, with two teams of four horses. 
The drivers have only Monday off. vSix days in the 
week they drive these great distances, every yard of the 
road being such as to require the utmost care. It is 
wonderful there are not more accidents. The Govern- 



in Canada^ Weste^ni U.S., and Mexico. 89 

ment of the United States made a present of the 
Yosemite Valley to the Californian' Government, who 
hold it as a place of recreation for the people for ever. 
They make the roads, which are fairly broad, and good 
as the nature of the country allows. There were some 
curious bits of work. In several places the road was 
hemmed in too closely by immense trees, so, instead of 
cutting one down, the exact distance required had been 
measured on the trunk, and a slice taken off high enough 
to allow the wheels to pass. In other places, big dead 
trees having fallen across the road, the obstacle had 
been sawn across at both sides of the road, and only the 
middle piece removed. The Government have built the 
Stoneman Hotel, which is much larger than any of the 
old ones. 

TJmrsday, October \\th. — A blazing day. We started at 
nine o'clock on a buckboard to see what we could. First 
to the Mirror Lake, now almost dried up and muddy, but 
pretty from its situation. In the side of the great walls 
of rock near the lake is a profile, said by the Indians to 
be one of their ancient heroes, with a name many 
syllables long, looking for his lost bride, Tis-saack, to 
return and bring joy and happiness to his wigwam. It 
is difficult to feel sentimental about Indian love affairs. 
No doubt Tis-saack ran away because she was tired of 
carrying his tent and baggage after him on foot while 
he rode on ahead. She would also have to do all the 
hard work, pitching the tent, cooking, getting in fire- 
wood, &c., while the devoted husband smoked, fished, or 
hunted. Let us hope she found an easier situation. 



go Five Months Fine Weather 

From the lake we went down the valley, past El 
Capitan, and up the hill (on the opposite side of the 
valley to Inspiration Point), on the Milton Road, getting 
some lovely views down the Merced Caiion, where there 
used to be a road to Madera, now deserted, because 
three roads into the valley did not pay. From the 
Milton road we saw the road we came by, and the zig- 
zag from Inspiration Point into the valley. On the 
Milton side the road is suddenly blocked by a magnifi- 
cent rock, standing out alone on the hill-side, and has 
to make many doubles to get high enough to pass it. 
So rich in beauty is the valley that this rock has not 
been thought worthy of a name, though it would make 
the fortune of a Scotch valley. It was the same with 
some curious rock pillars. The road was very steep 
and rough, so that on reaching the top we were glad to 
rest in the shade of some gigantic pine-trees and eat our 
lunch. As the yellow flowers in my hat had faded to 
dirty white and looked very shabby, it suddenly occurred 
to me to take them out, and trim my hat with the 
beautiful golden moss, which I did with complete success, 
and gained many compliments from fellow-travellers. 
I brought that moss home, and it is golden now. On 
our return to the valley we followed the river, and, 
leaving the carriage, struggled through the brushwood 
to get to the pools to see the lovely reflection of EI 
Capitan. About a third of the way up this bare rock a 
solitary pine-tree has managed to plant itself and grow 
about one hundred feet. It is very difificult to distin- 
guish it amongst the many lines on the rock, of cracks 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 91 

and inequalities. Our driver had arranged for us to 
arrive at the Bridal Veil at the proper moment to see 
the rainbow. To-day it was 3.40. The sun must be at 
a particular point of its descent to catch the fall, and 
then it turns it into one immense rainbow. As we saw 
it, even with so little water, it was very beautiful. We 
reached the hotel about 4.30, after a delightful day, to 
find it literally empty — not a creature there, except one 
Chinaman in the kitchen. At last Edward induced him 
to make us some tea, but as he said he had nothing to 
do with the cream, Edward had to go into the cellar and 
take what he wanted himself. 

This night we were the only guests in the hotel, the 
Boston family who came with us having gone to Glacier 
Point. The Boston gentleman is a wholesale boot and 
shoe manufacturer, and employs a large number of 
Irish, who give him a great deal of trouble with strikes 
and disputes. His daughter told me how frightened 
they often were, for the men would wait outside her 
father's office and would form two lines for him to walk 
through while they swore at and threatened him. Even 
men who had been with him twenty years, and re- 
ceived much help and kindness from him, would join 
the rest. Another traveller was a German gentleman, 
representative of a soft woollen goods firm, who was 
making an extended tour, combining business and plea- 
sure. He had been in every West Indian island, all 
through South America and Mexico, and was now going 
through the States. These German superior commercial 
travellers are everywhere, seeking whom they may 



92 Five Months' Fine Weather 

devour. We had that day an opportunity of testing 
the American boast of the high wages they pay. On 
our drive we met a cart with five horses, bringing freight 
for the Stage Company, so we inquired what pay the 
driver got. He said he owned cart and horses ; he 
came fifty miles, and was paid three cents per pound ; 
he carried 3500 pounds up and down these dreadful 
roads, so would receive 105 dollars. Out of this he had 
to pay twelve dollars for tolls, one dollar for the keep 
of each horse per day, and his own food, two meals at 
fifty cents each, altogether forty-two dollars for the 
journey, so that he would only have sixty-three dollars 
in hand to cover his own wages, and five days' work and 
wear and tear of his five horses and cart. Poor pay in 
a country where the lowest coin is five cents ! 

Friday, October 12th. — Another blazing day. We 
started at eight o'clock for a long day's work. We 
drove to the stables, close to the old ^hotels, and then 
mounted ponies for the ascent to Glacier Point. It is a 
wonderful trail, quite safe and easy, but rather giddy, as 
at several turns the pony's head is over one precipice 
and his tail over another, and often, by stretching out 
an arm, we could have dropped pebbles straight down, 
hundreds of feet, into the valley. The beauty of it sur- 
passes, I think, anything in Switzerland. For some 
time we crept up under the Sentinel Point, which towered 
far above us, but by-and-by we reached his level, and 
from Glacier Point looked down upon him. Half-way 
to the point there is a turn in the zigzag, from which 
the traveller can see both ways, up and down the valley. 



m Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 93 

It is a dizzy pleasure, as there is a sheer descent of one 
thousand five hundred feet on each side, but there is no 
danger. We stopped to visit a flat rock, remarkable 
both for the view from it and for the curious Agassiz 
Column close by. This column is composed of three 
immense stones, one on the top of the other. Most of 
the rocks seemed to be divided into upper and lower 
parts, sometimes of different kinds of stone. It was very 
interesting to note how different the rocks looked from 
different elevations. For instance, from the valley, the 
Washington Column looks very fine, but as one rises it 
fades into insignificance, and seems to melt into the 
general outline, but the Half Dome looks magnificent 
from every point. The Cap of Liberty looked but a 
small affair from Glacier Point, but when one is close 
to it, it is very fine. This wonderful trail was made 
by a man called Macauly, from Antrim, who now keeps 
the little inn at Glacier Point with the assistance of his 
wife, a pleasant, motherly German, and his two fine 
boys, who, however, are to go to school next year, and 
the mother is to go down, too, to make a home for them 
and keep them out of mischief. Mr. Macauly is a most 
interesting man. He told us that he had been a sailor, 
first on the Cunard Hne^ but had joined the Confederate 
service because the pay was so high. He planned 
the trail all by himself, although he knew nothing of 
engineering, just planning it out from place to place by 
his eye. Every one told him he would never succeed, 
but he persevered, though often despairing. Seven 
nationalities, he said, were concerned in making that 



94 Five Months Fine Weather 

road — himself (Irish), one Englishman, one Scotchman, 
a Chinese, two Indians, one American, and a Mexican 
lad, who worked best of any. It was made in five 
months, and for seven years he took toll, and then sold 
it to the State for 2500 dollars. His little inn is beauti- 
fully clean, and our lunch there excellent. We should 
have liked to spend a week there, and make excursions 
into the forest, though that might not have been safe, for 
there are bears. His boys saw one a few days before 
our visit not far from the house. The view from the 
verandah is marvellous — across the valley to the Nevada 
and Vernal Falls, the Cap of Liberty, the Half Dome, 
Cloud's Rest, and, far away in the distance. Mount Lyall, 
where Mr. Macauly said there was a " living glacier." 
Glacier Point is so called only because from it a glimpse 
can be had of this glacier far away. A short distance 
from the inn is a rock jutting out about twenty feet 
beyond anything else over the valley, just a bar of 
rock, as if one had put a plank out over the straight, 
unbroken drop of three thousand five hundred feet. To 
my horror I found my husband standing on this stone 
enjoying the view. He had to come off at once, it was 
too dreadful, but there were nooks and crannies in the 
rocks where one could wedge one's self and peer over. 
At one point the rock is flat, and Macauly has put a 
strong railing. From here we looked straight down 
on to the hotel, and shouted, as is usual, until some 
one down below answered our greeting. 

After two hours' rest we mounted our ponies and 
started for the Nevada and Vernal Falls. By-and-by 



211 Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 95 

the track was so steep and rough we preferred trusting 
our own feet, so got off and walked some way, then up 
and on again, no longer on a handsome road like Mr. 
Macauly's, but on just a natural path, very queer at 
times, round the mountain side down to the valley, where 
we crossed the bridge over the Illilouette River, passing 
the lovely Illilouette Falls, then up a tremendous pull to 
the top of the Nevada Falls, where we got off the ponies, 
and walked on to the very rock the water falls over. 
The guide advised our walking down the tiny canon to 
the foot of the falls, as the path was so steep and rough. 
Part of the road before reaching the Nevada Falls is 
very impressive. On one side, for about thirty yards, 
there is a steep slope, then it ends. From the track 
one simply sees that there must be a terrible precipice 
at that point, and that if one's pony slipped and 
rolled down the bank, there would be nothing to stop it. 
From below one sees that it is the edge of an extra- 
ordinary amphitheatre of rock, almost perpendicular. 
Snow's Hotel, at the foot of the Nevada Falls, was 
closed, so we missed our tea. We scrambled close to 
the foot of the Nevada Falls, and over the rocks to the 
very edge of the Vernal Falls, that is, as near as nerves 
permitted ; mine kept me further off than Edward 
ventured, but still I got to where I could look straight 
down where the water plunges about four hundred feet 
without a break. There is a natural barricade of rocks 
close to the falls. The water washes one's feet within a 
yard of its plunge. There is no practicable path to the 
foot of the Vernal Falls. A long way off we climbed 



96 Five MontJis' Fine Weather 

over rocks into the bed of tlie river to get a glimpse of 
them from below. On leaving the top of the falls we 
had to ascend a long way to get round a difficult point, 
then a steep descent, which gradually became easy, until 
we reached the valley, and indulged in a " lope " (canter) 
on the flat to the hotel. Our guide was pleasant and 
obliging ; he was the brother of the manager of the 
stables. It was a glorious day. Those who have time 
should take two days, spending the night at Glacier 
Point ; indeed, those who have time should spend the 
summer here. 

Saturday, October i^tk. — Up at 4.30. Started at 6. 10 
back to Wawona. We were very sorry to leave the 
valley so soon, for, though we had seen almost every- 
thing, still we should have liked to see everything again, 
and spend more time at the best points. Not only is 
the valley wonderfully beautiful, but it is different from 
any other. The mountains surrounding it are huge piles 
of bare granite, with precipitous sides and curious shapes, 
while the valley itself is full of fine trees, with a peaceful, 
clear river winding through it, reflecting the wonderful 
rocks above. Then, too, we could gladly have spent hours 
climbing round the Nevada and Vernal Falls, and many 
other charming bits. We hurried back to Wawona, be- 
cause the afternoon is devoted to visiting the big trees of 
Mariposa. It was very sad to say farewell to the valley 
at Inspiration Point. There one sees the whole glorious 
scene at once ; a few turns of the wheels and it is gone 
for ever, not the tiniest glimpse to be had anywhere. 

After lunch at Wawona, Toby got a little trap, 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 97 

as there was only one other visitor, a German gentleman, 
to take us to the Mariposa Big Trees. It was a very 
beautiful forest drive. We went past magnificent pines 
and cedars, but they were nothing compared to \.\\& Sequoia 
gigantea, the highest of which reaches two hundred and 
seventy-two feet. It is odd that there is no English name 
for them. We left the carriage and stood at the foot of 
the Grizzly Giant, and felt like ants creeping round him. 
Our heads did not reach beyond his roots. Another 
tree has a doorway cut through the middle, twelve feet 
by twelve feet, for the coach to drive through, and still 
the tree lives. The biggest trees are named, many after 
Presidents of the United States. " Andy Johnson " has 
fallen, and people walk through the hollow trunk without 
stooping. The German bought two little trees to take 
home, and somebody said the Earl of Devon had one 
on his estate in England that had grown sixty feet in 
twenty-five years. Toby told us the Mariposa trees 
were four thousand years old, and I read in an American 
guide-book that they " were present at the birth of our 
Lord." I did not see any reason given for their subse- 
quently leaving Nazareth to settle here. We bought a 
little pin-cushion of the bark, which is said to be as good 
as emery paper for needles. 

Sunday, October i^th. — Started at eight o'clock -for 
Raymond — a charming drive. Tommy Gordon, the 
driver, was musically inclined to-day, and favoured us 
with many songs, one very sentimental, about " marble 
halls, where my love sits and drinks his wine and thinks 
of me ;" but that soon wearied him, and he went off to 

H 



98 Five Months Fine Weather 

a very long comic song about "Jim Jones." I could 
only catch one verse of it : — 

Then he went to Jersey City, 

And lived altogether on clams and cheese, 

He put all his money in his mother-in-law's pocket, 
And took out a patent for raising fleas. 

After dining at Raymond, we got on board the Pul- 
man sleeper, and were taken to Berenda, where we had 
to wait until 4 a.m. for the Southern Pacific train, which 
landed us at San Francisco at noon. After looking for 
letters and finding none, and securing berths on the s.s. 
Santa Rosa for San Diego on the 19th, we went off at 
once to Monterey to the delightful Hotel del Monte. 
It was a weary journey of nearly four hours without 
Pulman car, but the scenery was very pretty, such 
orchards and vineyards, pretty towns and villages, trees 
and flowers, and beautiful hills on each side in the dis- 
tance. We arrived very tired, and indulged in tea in 
our own room, which we much enjoyed. We were sorry 
to leave our Boston fellow-travellers, whom we rejoined 
at Wawona, at 'Frisco. The gentleman was originally 
a miner, and his wife wore a brooch containing the first 
nugget he had found. He was going to Sacramento to 
see an old comrade, still living in the cabin they once 

shared. Mr. C was a very quiet man, but he told 

us some interesting tales of Californian life when he was 
amongst the gold-diggers. It must have been a fearful 
time — no law^ no protection for life or property. One 
man might shoot another, and nobody would interfere — 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 99 

it was nobody's business ; only when matters got too 
serious they would organize a vigilance committee, arrest 
the murderers, and hang them. A plank out of an 
upper-storey window, or the projecting branch of a tree, 
sufficed as gallows. One of his experiences shows how 
reckless men can become. A ruffian strolled into town 
one day, maddened with drink, and telling every one he 
met that, having already killed eleven men, he meant 
that day to kill a twelfth, "so that he might have a jury 
to sit on him in hell ; " he did not care who it was, but 
he meant to kill somebody. First he went up to a man 
he knew, who was sitting with his dog between his knees, 
and shot the dog dead with his revolver, but this man 
had presence of mind to keep quiet, for if he had 
spoken, or moved to get his pistol, the wretch would 
have shot him at once. After vainly endeavouring to 
pick a quarrel with anybody who knew him, he went to 
a drinking-saloon, where he found a stranger, just come 
into the town. Now Bret Harte would have made a 

prettier ending to this tale, but Mr. C was not a 

man to romance, and so it became still more ugly. All 
the men of the town, seeing his state, and knowing him, 
slipped quietly away without a word of warning to the 
stranger. The murderer went to him and stood him a 
drink, and, as the poor fellow raised the glass to his lips, 
sprang upon him, knocked him down, stamped on him, 
and fired five times into him. After this, he thought it 
wise to retire into the country. Then the others came 
back, and put the corpse on a cart and drove it round 
the town to work up the feelings of the community, and 

n 2 



100 Five Months' Fine Weather 

a band was organized to go after the murderer and bring 
him back. After a long search they found him, and 
fired at him, but he got away, though wounded, and 
they followed on. At last they found his horse, covered 
with blood, and then they found him, badly hurt, tied 
him securely, brought him back^ and the townspeople 
met them outside the town, drove the waggon containing 
the wounded, fettered wretch under a tree, strung him 
up to one of the boughs, and drove the waggon "away, 
and so he was hung. There is a want of the heroic 
about this story !. 

Tuesday, October l6th. — Rather misty, but the air 
pleasant. It seems the almost constant mist from the 
sea is considered one of the charms of Monterey by the 
visitors from the blazing inland States. We were glad 
to have a quiet day, roaming on tlie beach and in the 
pretty grounds of the hotel, which cover one hundred 
and ninety acres, and contain a maze like Hampton 
Court, tennis and croquet courts, swings, &c. There is 
a large sea-bathing establishment on the beach. The 
hotel is very comfortable, the great feature being the 
winding ascending passages instead of staircases. Our 
bedroom, with bathroom attached, and very good simple 
board, was only seven dollars a day for both of us. 
Next day was brighter, so we took the seventeen miles' 
drive in a little carriage and pair, six dollars. They 
appeared to be very short miles. This drive, which is 
remarkably pretty, is almost entirely over the Hotel 
Company's property. It goes past the old barracks 
and the Chinese fishing-village to the seaside, which it 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. loi 

follows a long way, until it reaches the famous cypress 
grove, which is said to share with the cedars of Lebanon 
an^d some grove in Japan the distinction of being the 
oldest trees alive. Now, as Toby said the Mariposa 
trees were four thousand years old, how old must these 
be ? They certainly have the appearance of great age ; 
many are dead, many dying, and the Spanish moss 
disfigures them badly, and must exhaust them. It grows 
on every branch. Still, they are very picturesque. We 
saw plenty of sea-lions, and numbers of coot, wild geese, 
and very odd-looking birds with long thin bills, flying 
close past our heads in long, single-file processions. 
First our driver said they were albatross, and then he 
said they were pelican. We scrambled over the rocks 
to look into the pools on the beach at the large mussels 
and the crabs, and there we found the most magnificent 
sea-anemones, fully a foot across when open, and of the 
most brilliant light green. The abellona is plentiful 
here, but lives in deep w^ater. Every child in England 
owns an abellona shell I should say, though it does not 
know the name. We found a little Chinese fishing-vil- 
lage where they were sold, and we bought one, so fresh 
that part of the fish was still sticking to the shell. 
Johnny eats them, but no one else does, though they 
ought to be as good as scallops. It is said if the fish 
dies a natural death the brilliant colours in the shell fade. 
We lunched at the Pebble Beach on provisions we had 
taken with us, our coachman sharing the meal, and 
telling us of the long drives he had taken English people 
several times. It was very tempting to hear of the 



102 Five Months Fine Weather 

scenery on the road between Monterey, via the Yosemite 
Valley, and Virginia City, but of course the season was 
too late for us to do it. Further on is a beach of white 
sand, which was being carted away for glass manufacture. 
After leaving the lovely coast, we drove through woods 
alive with quail, and, finally, got on to the high road, 
which was very rough and dusty. We looked at the 
Roman Catholic Church, built in 1794 of bricks plastered 
over and coloured yellow, the court-yard paved with 
whales' bones, formerly very common here, but now be- 
coming scarce, as the whales have been killed off. I 
fancy our drive ought to have included the old Mission, 
of which we saw a photograph afterwards atTaber's shop 
in San Francisco. The driver told us this church, close 
to the hotel grounds, was the old Mission, and we then 
knew no better. At the beginning of the wood there is 
a colony of tiny wooden houses, not half the size of the 
smallest Arcachon villas, and frames for tents, which are 
covered in the season with gay-coloured calico, and let, 
like the tiny houses, to visitors who take their meals at 
a second-class hotel in the middle of the colony, all be- 
longing to the Del Monte Company, so that, when the 
great hotel has its full complement of eight hundred 
guests, and the second-class hotel, which is also large, 
is full, and all the villas and tents are taken, the share- 
holders must make money. 

Thursday, October i8th. — Rose early, and took the 
6.20 train to Menlo Park, where we got a trap to drive 
to Senator Stanford's horse-breeding establishment at 
Palo Alto, where he has over 1000 horses. We passed 



in Canada^ Weste7-n U.S., and Mexico. 103 

the University he is building, and the grand tomb he is 
erecting for himself, his wife, and only son, who died a 
short time ago, and we drove past the house, with a 
smart garden, and, coming close up to it, like a park 
meadow in England, a large vineyard. The horse- 
breeding establishment is in two divisions ; one for run- 
ners, which looked like a nice lot of hunters, the other 
for the great American speciality in horse-flesh — trotters. 
Senator Stanford is supposed to have the finest, and 
wins all the races. Occasionally he sells some at 
enormous prices, but the groom who showed us round 
remarked with delightful frankness, " He never sells any 
he thinks he can get any good out of," Of course, his 
standard is very high. 

The stables were of the most primitive description, 
just wooden sheds, whitewashed, and guiltless of fittings, 
except a few pegs on which the clothing was hung and a 
i&^N medicine bottles stuck in a corner ; none of the trim- 
ness and neatness that make English stables so pleasant. 
The horse's food is brought in a bucket at meal-times ; 
this struck me as being a very good arrangement. 
Some of the horses were beauties, but very different 
from anything over here. Electioneer, the original stud 
horse, now sixteen years old, would be far too heavy 
for a brougham, but he was a great prize-winner in his 
day. In some cases a little blood has been introduced 
and the colts are very handsome. There is a mile race- 
course for exercising the trotters, who are put into the 
most comical, tiny, two-wheel traps. The driver has a 
seat about the size of a postage-stamp, and puts his legs 



I04 Five Months' Fine Weather 

along the shafts. He looks as if he were hanging on to 
the horse's tail. Unfortunately we never saw a trotting 
match, but the pace even of these horses exercising was 
remarkably fast, and the action very fine. 

We drove back to the station past a number of buck- 
eye trees. As I had often heard and read of buckeyes, 
after which the State of Ohio is nicknamed, I got some 
to bring home. They seem to be a kind of horse- 
chestnut. On reaching San Francisco we went off to 
Taber for photographs of what we had seen, and then 
to the curiosity-shop opposite the hotel, where wc got a 
bowl of Indian wicker-work which holds water, and an 
old tobacco pouch of the same. These things are 
becoming scarce, because the Indians can make more 
by working as ordinary labourers. The dealer told us 
with pride that he was born and brought up in Wigmore 
Street, Cavendish Square ! 

Friday, October \Q)tJi. — At 9 a.m. we went on board 
the steam-ship Santa Rosa. As Edward had been 
given a pass, and introduced to Captain Ingall by the 
managing partner, we were allowed to take our trunk 
into our cabin, which was roomy and comfortable, and 
were invited to dine at the captain's end of the table. 
The Santa Rosa is very well managed and prettily 
decorated. Unfortunately, the fog concealed the coast, 
and the day would have been dreary had we not made 
the acquaintance of a cheery, blue-eyed little English- 
woman, Mrs. Hcrmon, who came with her brother, Mr. 
Roberts, to California on account of her health ten 
years ago. San Francisco not suiting her, they settled 



in Canada^ Western U.S.^ and Mexico, 105 

at San Diego, where she is always well. Mr. Roberts 
had the post of chief clerk on the railway, and having 
to go about a great deal on their work, became 
thoroughly acquainted with the country and started as 
land agent, doing very well for a time, but the worry 
and hard work of it, together with his regular occu- 
pation, proved too much for his health, and he died 
about six months before we met her^ leaving her hands 
full, as there was no one else to take up the business, 
her husband, an architect and a more recent arrival in 
the country, not knowing anything about it. She has 
also the fruit ranche they had just started. I asked her 
many questions about South California and the pros- 
pects of Englishmen coming out there. She told me 
she and her brother had had a good deal to do with 
young fellows sent out from England. Some were 
quite unfit for the life, and they had sent them back ; 
others they had started, advised, and looked after. 
Sometimes, she said, a young fellow would be sent out 
with 500/. in his pocket — too small a sum to be of any 
service— and then, if otherwise a likely lad, they would 
persuade him to return the money to his father and 
work for hire until he had saved something and gained 
experience of the climate, soil, and methods of cultiva- 
tion, which are totally different from ours. She said it 
was best for a lad to bring 1000/. with him and buy an 
uncleared lot. While he is clearing and preparing the 
land, which he must do with his own hands as labour 
is too dear to be worth employing, he is gathering 
knowledge quite as well as if he were apprenticed to 



io6 Five Months Fine Weather 

some farmer, who would put him to do just the same 

work. If he buys a cleared lot, he is sure to pay much 

more than it is worth, and will begin without the 

necessary knowledge, which can only be gained on the 

spot. The lad should put up a decent little house to 

live in, as too rough and coarse a life has a demoralizing 

effect. She thinks that whenever possible a sister should 

be sent out with a lad, on equal terms as to profits, 

because she makes a home for him, and there is so much 

a woman can do on a ranche ; for instance, preserving 

fruit when it is too cheap to sell. It seems to me a 

rough life for a girl, but she said there were many nice 

people settled there now, who had started reading and 

other societies. When the land is cleared and the olive 

and orange trees -planted which will not bear for some 

years, vegetables and small fruit should be planted 

between them. These pay very well as there is a large 

demand for them ; indeed, nothing can be sent away, 

because the local demand is so great. When the ranche 

is in working order, Mrs. Hermon considered it ought 

to pay five hundred pounds a year clear profit, besides 

keeping the owner, but over and over again she laid stress 

on the necessity for the farmer to do the work himself, 

not merely superintend, but labour with his hands. 

Not only do the Chinese get very high wages, but, as 

we heard from different sources afterwards, it is dan- 

. gerous to employ them on account of the jealousy of 

the white men. In one case a farmer had had fifty 

acres of raisin grapes ruined by tramps and roughs 

because he employed Chinese labour. It is very im- 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 107 

portant in California to keep well with the roughs, as 
there is no redress, and the law is delightfully uncertain. 
Mrs. Hermon had seen great evil done by deceitful 
prospectuses. People come from England, Germany, 
Italy, &c., lured by their promises, and often staking 
their whole substance on the venture. In one case a 
circular was sent offering wonderfully fertile land at 
three dollars an acre ; and when the poor wretches had 
broken up their homes and come over, the secretary of 
the company told them they certainly had had land at 
that price, but now they had nothing under seventy-five 
dollars an acre. Another company de;^cribed their land 
as well supplied with water, whereas there was not a 
drop to be had until the settler made a deep well. The 
idea given by the advertisements was of a land where 
oranges and vines, and all manner of rich vegetation 
covered the ground, and all the farmer would have to 
do would be to prune and trim and gather the produce. 
This is not a true picture of South California. It is a 
desolate region, except where great labour and costly 
artificial irrigation have brought out the qualities of the 
soil. Labour can do nothing there without capital, and 
it is a question if such a life — mere manual labour at 
market-gardening — is well repaid by the very small 
measure of success that seems possible. Whenever 
we heard of people making money, it was not by 
ranching but by land speculations. 

We had an amusing instance of the accuracy of a 
prospectus. A fellow-traveller tried to induce Edward 
to take shares in some company that owned " twelve 



ic8 Five Months' Fine Weather 

miles of orange groves." It was so printed on the 
prospectus, but on inquiry they dwindled to eight miles 
staked out for orange groves — not quite the same thing. 

Santa Barbara was passed at 5 a.m. All day we had 
alternate fog and sunshine, with only occasional glimpses 
of the coast, as we were now further out. But this day 
we saw what we had never counted on meeting so far 
north — flying-fish in numbers, shining in the sun Hke 
herrings, and flying about as if disturbed by the ship. 
They really did fly, not jump ; they turned first one way, 
then the other. One flew half round the ship. It gave 
us great pleasure, but it made us feel a desperately long 
way from home to see these outlandish creatures as 
common as minnows. 

Just before coming to San Pedro we passed a large 
iron ship stranded on the rocks. It was an English 
ship, laden with coals, then worth eighteen to twenty 
dollars a ton, owing to the strike in New South Wales. 
The captain refused to take a pilot on board, because 
he had been the journey before and thought he knew 
his way, though this part is very difficult to navigate, 
not only on account of rocks, but of the dense masses 
of seaweed, which choke the screw and render the ship 
unmanageable. Of course he came to grief, and lost all 
his own fortune, which he had put in the venture, as 
well as the ship. San Pedro has no harbour : it is an 
open roadstead, and passengers go off and come aboard 
by a tender. This is the landing-place for Los 
Angeles. 

San Diego has a very fine harbour, almost land- 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 109 

locked, but with an entrance twenty-seven feet deep. 
We narrowly escaped running down a tug ; even the 
captain lost his presence of mind to such an extent that 
he gave orders in plain English instead of nautical 
terms, telling the man at the wheel to steer " the other 
way." From this I judged the danger must have been 
great. It was evening, and very chilly when we arrived, 
so that the long journey to the Coronado Beach Hotel, 
always tiresome, was very unpleasant in the open hotel 
bus. The hotel is built round an inner court or garden 
230 by 150 feet, and is supposed to accommodate 2000 
guests in 630 bedrooms. This sounds like a puzzle, 
but I take it from a printed card. It has seventeen 
and a half acres of carpet, and the total cost of it was 
one million dollars. It was almost empty when we 
were there and very uncomfortable, the charges high. 
A curious feature in this* district is the Bridal Chamber, 
rooms finer and smarter than the others, specially 
reserved for newly-married couples. There are bridal 
chambers on the s.s. Santa Rosa and others of 
the line, and at all the hotels. At the Coronado 
Beach Hotel, to quote their own words, " The two 
bridal chambers in suites are exquisite in their appoint- 
ments of white and gold. It would be a species of 
literary sacrilege to try and enumerate their charms. 
In every particular they are the very acme of perfection." 
By the way, this gives a good idea of the usual style of 
American advertisements. Generally, people like to 
hide the fact that they are newly married ; but here it 
is otherwise. Captain Ingalls told us of one happy 



no Five Months Fine Weather \ 

couple who had engaged the bridal cabin, and came on 
board in all their bridal finery, but immediately after 
leaving the harbour the Pacific Ocean proved too much 
for the bridegroom, and he fell flat on his face in the 
saloon, and remained there groaning and lamenting 
until they reached Santa Barbara. 

We rested on Sunday, admiring the lovely bay and the 
brilliant colouring of sea, sky, the distant hills, and 
indeed everything, in the delicious sunshine. It is sup- 
posed that formerly a river ran out here, but somehow 
it disappeared, and the curious bay is the old mouth of 
the river, kept open by the sea, but gradually filling up. 
It is the only harbour in the States south of San Fran- 
cisco, which is the finest in the world. North of San 
Francisco there is again no harbour south of Puget 
Sound. It is said that large vessels can go about seven 
miles up the San Diego bay, where they are absolutely 
protected from the ocean by the long narrow tongue of 
land which stretches from the southern extremity of the 
bay, due north to the entrance, which is at the north 
end. 

It is this narrow strip of land which widens at the 
northern end and the so-called North Island, which is 
practically one with it, that the Coronado Beach Com- 
pany bought and cut up into building plots. The 
wonderful hotel was the decoy to bring speculators and 
settlers, and in that capacity it is a great success, 
much of the land being already sold and many good 
houses, as well as a multitude of small ones, already 
built. Even the chambermaid in the hotel had invested 



in Canada, Western U.S., and JMexico. iii 

her savings in a villa. The hotel itself is unprofitable, 
and there were rumours it was bankrupt. There had 
been an idea that Southern California would rival 
Florida as a winter resort, and so immense hotels have 
been built everywhere, but even yellow fever cannot 
drive people from Florida, and there are very few 
attractions in California. There are no roads for 
driving or preparations of any kind for tourists. 
People are said to drive on the beach in the season, but 
whenever we went on it, it was too soft even for walking. 
There are some moderately good shops, in one a tempt- 
ing display of curiosities, but as they were mostly 
Mexican silver work and such things, we did not buy 
much. Still we found a few things we wanted. The 
sunsets over the ocean are very fine. There are some 
rocky islands outside the bay which stand out beautifully 
against the sky. 

Monday, October 22nd. — We spent the day with the 
Hermons, meeting them on the road to Sweetwater Dam 
in the morning. The drawback of Coronado Beach is 
the ferry. A car ride to the ferry, then waiting for the 
boat, crossing, and then another car ride to the main 
streets of the town, are a bad beginning and finish to a 
day's excursion, as it means half an hour at each end of 
the day. We had to walk about a quarter of a mile to 
catch another car, which took us all the way to Sweet- 
water Dam and left us there, to see what we could, 
while it went some way further and returned to pick us 
up. We only had about half an hour, but it was enough 
to see the Dam which is a very important work, an 



1 1 2 Five Montlis Fine Weather 

immense wall built across the Sweetwater Valley to 
collect the great body of water that comes down the 
river in spring, and retain it for irrigation all through 
the year. The company who made the Dam own the 
land it is meant to irrigate, which they sell off in five- 
acre lots for building, and large pipes convey the water 
along the main roads, and any one may attach pipes for 
his own property and use as much water as he wishes 
for house^ garden, stables, &c,, for a rent of two and a 
half dollars per acre. The soil is wonderfully fertile 
when irrigated, and very little of the five-acre plots was 
wasted in flowers ; they are all planted with orange and 
olive trees. Mrs. Hermon had a ten-acre plot, a special 
favour, as the wish of the company is to make this the 
great residential district, so they discourage market- 
gardening. It is called Chula Vista, and commands 
lovely views both towards sea and land. Every house 
built there must cost at least two thousand dollars. Mrs. 
Hermon showed us how she had planted her ten acres 
with orange and olive trees, and, for present profit, one 
thousand strawberry plants, which would yield fruit in 
December, although only planted in October. The 
planting being now finished, she meant to discharge the 
Chinese labourer, who had received forty dollars a 
month. An American, aged twenty, who did outside 
work and drove the carriage, received thirty dollars a 
month, with board and lodging. Mrs. Hermon spoke 
well of the Chinese, and said they are good, steady 
workers, but slow. The American can do more and 
better work in the time if he will, but Johnn}^ has this 



171 Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 113 

great superiority, that he requires no watching. He 
will work all the time as if his master's eye were on him. 
Tliere was some very fine fruit for dessert — a bunch of 
grapes weighing three and a half pounds, and splendid 
apples and pears, but the greatest treasure they had 
found for me was a live tarantula. They had put it in 
a bottle, and wanted me to bring it home, but really it 
was too loathsome. 

These spider monsters are found, like the centipedes 
and scorpions, in turning over new ground ; they are all 
venomous and, it is said, a tarantula bite kills, but Mrs. 
Hermon's man said he had never heard of any one 
being injured by either tarantula or centipede, though 
they are fairly common. 

Mrs. Hermon's was quite a large house, and I am 
sure no English servant would have gone there as maid 
of all work, but her girl, certainly rather rough-looking, 
cooked the lunch very nicely and brought it in and 
changed plates, &c. We noticed everywhere that 
though wages are high in the States, the work is very 
hard, and servants are not looked upon as members of 
the household but as machines. A servant undertakes 
to do certain work and if she is ill, she is just turned 
out to make room for a machine in better working 
order. Of course the servants show just as little regard 
for their employers. Mrs. Hermon is trying English 
treatment. After lunch Mrs. Hermon drove us to see 
several fruit ranches where oranges, guavas, lemons, limes, 
pomegranates, the third crop of figs, and many other 
fruits were growing in wonderful profusion. The per- 

I 



114 Five Months Fine Weather 

Simmon, a Japanese fruit, is the most beautiful tree, 
the fruit is a brilHant red. The Forbidden Fruit 
looks very handsome, but does not ripen so far north. 
Of course vines are luxuriant, but they do not pay to 
grow now, though the grapes are fine muscat and quite 
large. 

We visited an old lady, Mrs. Kimball, who gave us 
grapes off vines that had not been irrigated since they 
were first planted, six years ago. Kimball is the great 
name at San Diego. Many years ago the three 
brothers Kimball bought an immense tract of land, ten 
leagues, from a Mexican to whom it had been granted 
by the Mexican Government before the Americans stole 
half their country. They paid 30,000 dollars for it, of 
course quite wild and bare. For years they struggled on, 
often having to borrow money to pay the taxes, which 
are levied there on all land, whether cultivated or not. 
At last they persuaded the California Southern Rail- 
road to come to San Diego, by giving them 40,000 acres 
and every second block. A block in America is now 
taken as a term of measurement an eighth of a mile 
long. 

Now the Kimballs are millionaires, but remain very 
simple people. This Mrs. Millionaire was hoeing her 
vineyard in a little cotton dress with the sleeves rolled 
up, but no doubt Miss Millionaire shines in silk and 
diamonds, and has her eye on the British peerage. It 
is to be hoped she will not fall a prey to some adventurer 
like the individual who called himself Sir George 
Bridges, Bart., and got engaged lately to the prettiest 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 115 

heiress in San Francisco. Luckily he was discovered, 
before it was too late, to be an American forger who 
had played the same trick in several towns and been 
married more than once. 

Another ranche we visited was the property of a 
charming old lady of eighty-four, who came there some 
years back for her son's health. He died, and now she 
lives there without kith or kin, or even an old friend 
near her, and still she seems quite happy. 

A visit to Mr. Kimball's olive-mill closed the day. 
Olive oil making is the rising industry in California, 
and pays very well, but it requires capital, as the trees 
have to be planted and do not bear for some years, and 
the mill and machinery take money. There is no 
quantity of olives now raised to supply a large mill, but 
everybody is planting them. Mr. Elwood Cooper has 
a large olive ranche and mills near Santa Barbara, 
and the year before last he sold all he made at 
twenty-five dollars a barrel to go east, and last year 
at fifteen dollars a barrel. The mill we visited was 
not even a one horse, it was a one man affair. The 
process is simple. The olives are crushed stones and 
all, under a vertical stone roller, then they are put in a 
tub with holes over a vat, and are very slowly pressed 
to force out the oil, which is strained, filtered, and 
bottled, and sold at a dollar a pint. The mast is then 
put back under the roller, water added, and the same 
process repeated for second quality oil. The olive-tree 
growing in California was originally introduced by the 
Spanish priests, and is called the mission olive. 

I 2 



1 1 6 Five Months Fine Weather 

Mrs. Hennon left us at the car station, and on arriving 
at the hotel we found that, although she had driven us 
about all the afternoon, we had spent a dollar and a half 
in car fares. There is a car line to the Mexican frontier, 
but as there is nothing to see except the boundary-stone, 
we did not make the excursion, but devoted ourselves 
to the immediate neighbourhood. San Diego expects 
to eventually occupy an area four miles by eighteen 
miles, without Chula Vista, and National City, and the 
whole of this is already divided into town lots, twenty- 
five feet by one hundred and twenty feet, at prices vary- 
ing from eighty-five to five hundred dollars a lot. This 
information was given us by the estate agent, living like 
a hermit at the top of University Heights. We had 
come up by car, and seeing fellow-creatures, he had 
emerged from his office to take advantage of such an un- 
usual occurrence. As we laughed at the idea, he waved 
his hand proudly to draw our attention to the four 
houses in view, one of them his own office. " All these," 
said he, " were built since last May." They were miles 
apart. The long tram-lines are built, like the large 
hotels, not for profit in themselves, but to induce people 
to buy lots and build. 

Another car journey took us all along the narrow strip 
called Coronado Beach, and round the south end of the 
Bay to the town, in about an hour, with, of course, 
several changes of car. The sandy waste was marked 
off into building-plots all the way, some streets already 
graded, and a few trees planted. In some places the 
beach is only about thirty yards wide and just above 
sea- level. It looks as if the waves would go right over 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 117 

it in rough weather. Quite at the south end of the bay 
there is marshy land, which affords some shooting. 

Thursday, October 2^th. — We left San Diego at 9 a.m. 
by the California Southern Railroad, and had a pretty 
run to East Riverside through the Temecula Canon, 
passing every now and then towns, with graded streets, 
and trees planted, and everything but houses. They 
look very comical, but the pity of it is, that it stops 
ordinary cultivation. If one building-plot is sold, the 
rest cannot be reconverted into agricultural Ian 1. After 
changing cars, a run of twenty minutes took us to River- 
side, the show place of California. As we were trying 
to arrange about a carriage to take us round, a gentle- 
man joined us whom we had met before, and who owned 
a good deal of property in this district, and insisted on 
acting as showman and standing treat with the carriage. 
It was a great advantage to have him with us, as he 
told us all about the great Riverside Irrigation and 
Land Owning Company, and took care that we saw all 
the best parts. We drove over wide roads decorated 
with aloe and palm trees, past gentlemen's houses, each 
with its orange ranche, to the Magnolia Avenue. The 
magnolias were planted, but died with one consent, and 
I do not think they would have been more beautiful 
than the pepper-trees and gum-trees. There is also a 
Cyprus avenue, handsome but gloomy. 

We were struck with the great neatness and care 
required by the orange-trees — not a weed was to be seen. 
The soil must be kept broken, so that the sun and air 
can reach the roots, and they must be irrigated three 
times a year. The orange becomes profitable when six 



I i 8 Five Months' Fine Weather 

years old, improves until it is sixteen, and continues in 
its prime for many years, being a very long-lived vege- 
table. At sixteen and after it is said to bring in a profit 
of 80/. sterling per acre. We saw some olive planta- 
tions and quantities of grapes drying in the sun on 
trays for raisins ; it is the sun that turns the white 
muscat to purple. Seventy-thousand boxes of raisins 
were exported from Riverside last year. We saw the 
sorting and packing establishments in the town, but did 
not admire them. It was all handwork, and the fruit was 
too much fingered. Chinese were packing raisins in 
boxes, which were also made on the premises. A man 
told us he nailed together 600 boxes a day, and as he 
put all the nails he used into his mouth, and there are 
ten nails in each box, we calculated that he must take 
daily a good dose of iron, and we suggested an addition 
of a little quinine. There are two crops of grapes a 
year, but they are not very profitable. 

An Englishman called Gage, formerly a little 
jeweller, started a store here a short time ago, and, 
after looking about him, devised a new system of 
irrigation, and has opened up another large tract of 
land, and so he is rapidly becoming a millionaire. 

Riverside is a teetotal settlement ; wine is not allowed 
even in the big hotel. They were building more 
schools. The first thing done when a new settlement 
is really started is to put up a big schoolhouse. 

We came on to San Bernardino at 5.30 p.m, arriving 
at six, and put up at the new Hotel Stewart, which was 
good though not finished. San Bernardino is a very 
pretty little place, and appeared prosperous. We spent 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 119 

a morning rambling about and eating the delicious 
grapes of the vineyards that surround it, and in the 
afternoon started for Los Angeles, just the same kind 
of place, only larger, and with much the same pretty 
background of mountains. It is a monotonous country. 
We passed a number of big hotels on the way, 
apparently all guiltless of occupants, and the whole 
valley was laid out in lots to suit purchasers. Much of 
the land was already under cultivation. 

As the large Raymond Hotel at Pasadena, the 
fashionable suburb of Los Angeles, was still closed, we 
put up at the Westminster Hotel, only opened a few 
months but quite comfortable. Everybody was talking 
about "Minister" West's foolish letter, and they looked 
upon the dishonourable means employed to obtain it 
as most praiseworthy ; so "smart." The Los Angeles 
Times crowed about it much as our Daily News did 
of having secured some valuable piece of war news 
before any other newspaper had got it. The Times 
drew a most interesting distinction between " private " 
and " confidential." The letter to Mr. Sackville West 
promised that whatever answer he sent should be kept 
" private," and Mr. West marked his letters " private," 
and so " Mr. Murchison " (as the correspondent 
called himself) was at liberty to publish it ; but had 
the word "confidential" been used, the Times would 
have considered it most dishonourable to have shown it 
to any one. The local Republican leaders were all 
delighted. I quote from the Los Angeles Times : 
Major Bonebrake " thinks it will have a good deal of 
influence in the result " of the election. Colonel Ban- 



1 20 Five Months Fine Weather 

bury said, " the richest thing you have struck ; " while 
General Brierly remarked, " It's knocking the Demo- 
crats silly all along the line." 

America is a wonderfully military country, one hardly 
ever meets a plain Mr. Probably not one of the three 
gentlemen interviewed by the Times had the slightest 
connection with the army. We had travelled with a 
San Francisco gentleman for some days, and had heard 
him addressed as " General," and saw his arrival at San 
Bernardino announced as that of " General," so I in- 
quired why he was called General, as he was an insurance 
agent, and had never been in the army. The answer was, 
he was called so " by courtesy." The newest fashion is 
to call yourself or your friends "Judge." Probably 
military titles are becoming too common. 

Two other quotations from the Los Angdcs Times 
are rather good — " The Pall Mall Gazette s expose of 
London immorality, the Deutsche Riindschaii s publica- 
tion of the late German Emperor's diary, and the Los 
Angeles Times Sackville West correspondence are the 
three great journalistic sensations of the present 
decade." 

The other is remarkable for elegance of language : — ■ 
" Thurman rose up on end yesterday in Ohio, and 
fairly snorted over the enterprise of the Pomona states- 
men in springing upon an unsuspecting public the most 
beautiful sensation of the campaign." 

Western American newspapers are very uninteresting. 
Often two pages will be devoted to a chronicle of the 
entertainments given by Mesdames Brown, Jones and 



in Canada^ WLstern U.S., and Mexico 121 

Robinson, the guests and their govvns ; and long 
accounts of friendly societies' picnics. Another page 
will be taken hy \.\\^ findUeton\\\iQ a French paper, while 
less than half a page suffices for all European news. 
Baseball occupies a good deal of room, and there are 
curious announcements that such a town has "sold " an 
eminent player to another town. Often the articles are 
written in slang that is quite incomprehensible to 
foreigners, or, what is almost as bad, ordinary words 
used to convey new meanings, as for instance, in the 
following sentence from the St. Louis Daily Globe 
Democrat: — "As this country (America) is unexampled 
there is nothing to compare with it." The oddest 
newspaper we saw was presented to us by a fellow- 
traveller, who owned and edited it. It was about the 
size of the Saturday Review, was published weekly, and 
had but one subject — the wickedness of singing hymns 
when God had specially provided psalms for the pur- 
pose. All the crimes and misfortunes of humanity 
were attributed to our neglect of the Psalms. 

We spent a day exploring Los Angeles, which 
appeared to be very prosperous and growing rapidly. 
The residential quarters are exceedingly pretty, each 
house having a garden planted with orange-trees, aloes, 
&:c., and coming down to the edge of the road, from 
which it is separated only by a small curbstone, except 
in S0me streets where a stream of water about eighteen 
inches broad, flows between the pavement and the 
gardens. We noticed that the Los Angeles ladies are 
very pretty. 



122 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

Sunday, October 2Zth. — We had engaged a trap to 
take us the grand round, and had been promised a 
spirited team and a driver who knew the country well 
and would point out everything. We got a driver who 
did not even know the way ; and of our spirited team, 
one was broken-winded and very lame and the other 
could hardly keep on its legs. We started at 8.30, and 
drove first to Pasadena and up the hill occupied by the 
Raymond Hotel, to see the view from the terrace. The 
worst of this country is that there is only one view, the 
same at San Bernardino, Pasadena, and Los Angeles. 
From there, after much trouble to find the right road, 
we went to the Sierra Madre Villa, pleasantly situated 
on the slope of the mountain, with a good view and a 
garden. We had to wait here an hour for the horses to 
rest. As we drove away down the hill from the villa, 
one of them fell and nearly upset the trap. By-and-by 
we pulled up under a tree and ate our lunch of salt 
meat sandwiches, crackers, hard boiled eggs, and grapes. 
The fare never varies, and the driver always expects to 
share. This man was dull and uninteresting, in fact, he 
was half asleep. He told us he had to be up every 
morning at four o'clock to look after his horses, to drive 
all day, and to drive the 'bus to the train at night, not 
getting to bed until eleven o'clock. He got sixty dollars 
a month and a room. We generally found that wages 
were higher than with us, but the work much harder. 
One man does two men's work, and gets a man and 
a halPs wages. 

After losing our way several times, we reached 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 123 

" Lucky " Baldwin's ranche, where there was nothing to 
see except some tumble-down sheds for stables, and a 
{q\w fair horses. The whole place neglected and deso- 
late looking. I could not learn that there was any- 
special reason for Mr. Baldwin's nickname, except 
that he had made money, which is not uncommon in 
California. 

From there we went to the San Gabriel Mission, 
stopping on our way at the charming San Gabriel Hotel 
to enjoy a lemon squash. The great feature of this 
hotel is that there is no bar, or drinking-place, an im- 
mense advantage for quiet people. This hotel also 
belongs to a company which owns an enormous tract 
of land, and hopes in time to build a town round it. 

There was not much to see at the Mission. It is an 
old church built of brick and plastered, with a nice old- 
fashioned bell-tower. We looked inside and found a 
priest catechising some small folk in Spanish, which is 
still spoken by the old inhabitants. 

Again we lost our way and found ourselves close to 
a large winery. The country roads are all loose soft 
sand, and are mended by putting down straw, which 
mixes with the sand and binds it together. The winery 
had used the grape stalks for the purpose. At last we 
hit upon a main road and reached the hotel about 
five o'clock. We should have liked to know if the 
driver received the extra dollar charged for the carriage 
because it was Sunday. 

Tuesday, October 30//^. — We left Los Angeles by the 
9.40 a.m. train to San Pedro, and then went on 



124 ^^"^^ Months Fine Weather 

board the lug which takes goods and passengers to the 
steamer. We waited one and a half hours for her some 
way out in the bay, but happily the sea was perfectly 
smooth. The sun went in about two o'clock, and after 
that it was very cold and dreary. Next day there was 
a strong ground-swell, which was too much for every- 
body on board. It was still very cold, but clear, so that 
we could see the beautiful coast, and when we arrived 
at San Francisco about 6.20 p.m., and passed through 
the Golden Gate, the scene was lovely. The city and 
the forts were brilliantly lighted up, the sunset had 
turned the sky to gold, and looking back, when we had 
passed through the Gate, we saw it as it gained its name 
— a fort on each side, and, through the opening, the 
glory of the sunset. It was one of the grandest sights 
in America. 

The boat was about four hours late, so the baggage 
was not given out, though we landed before seven 
o'clock. The walk over the landing-stage was horrid, 
the hotel touters screaming and rushing at and over us 
like mad bulls, and hardly any lights, so that we all 
tumbled into holes and over dust heaps and planks. 

We spent two more days in San Francisco, and had 
the pleasure of seeing the great Democratic demonstra- 
tion. Some friends invited us to their corner room, from 
which we could see the procession come up Market 
Street and turn along Montgomery Street. We watched 
it for two and a half hours, and then retired, as it seemed 
likely to go on for some time. The prettiest things 
were the stands erected along the streets with red fires. 



ill Canada ^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 125 

We could not see very well, as we were so far off and 
the light was so bad. 

We took the ferry to Oakland, and went by train and 
car to Piedmont, a very pretty drive up hill, with a nice 
view over the great harbour. There is. a restaurant 
at Piedmont, frequented in summer by the San 
Franciscans. 

During our stay in California, the great divorce state, 
I watched the accounts of the divorce trials with much 
interest. They seemed to me to be very serious 
affairs. Only in one case was divorce granted for causes 
that would not have procured at least judicial separa- 
tion in England. This exception was very remarkable. 
A white woman obtained a divorce on the sole ground 
that she had married, believing her husband to be a 
white man, and had discovered afterwards that he had 
black blood in him. The announcement was made in 
both the principal San Franciscan papers as an ordinary 
matter. Of course one hears tales of absurd divorces, 
but they may not be true. One parvenu millionaire, 
whose name is freely given, is said to have divorced his 
old wife, who had struggled through bad times with 
him, because he did not think her sufficiently elegant 
for his new position. This surely must be a joke, like 
the tale about the old negro who won 15,000 dollars in a 
lottery, so divorced his old wife and gave a white woman 
3000 dollars to marry him ; " For what," said he, " is 
wealth, without position in Society ? " 

It was on leaving San Francisco that we made the 
acquaintance of the American Ticket Brokers' Associa- 



126 Five MontJis' Fine Weather 

tion. The main object of all American railways seems 
to be to avoid making money. For this purpose all 
baggage trafficwas put into the hands of Wells, Fargo and 
Co., and similar firms, who take charge of it and pay 
the railroad companies so much a ton, but charge the 
passengers so much a pound. This was completely 
satisfactory so far as it went^ but did not dispose of the 
passengers ; so the different railways combined to issue 
absurd return tickets, unlimited as to time, which 
give choice of return by any route, and are only a trifle 
more expensive than single tickets. It is the same with 
long journey tickets, which are sold at greatly reduced 
rates. 

We ignorantly bought single tickets from Chicago to 
San Francisco for 97^ dollars each, when for 100 dol- 
lars we might have had return tickets, which we could 
have used as far as Denver, and then sold to the Ticket 
Brokers' Association. We met a gentleman who had 
done so. These tickets took the traveller from Chicago 
to Tacoma, over the Northern Pacific, and down to San 
Francisco by the Shasta route. He might return to 
Chicago either by Salt Lake City, Denver, and the 
centre of America, or go south by the Southern Pacific 
as far as El Paso on the Mexican frontier, and back by 
any route he liked. Our only dealing with the Associa- 
tion was from San Francisco to Denver. We applied 
for tickets, and were seized by the Association agent, 
who bought us two tickets for New Orleans, via, Denver, 
and other places we wished to visit. On reaching Den- 
ver we called at their office and sold the coupons we 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico, iiy 

did not require at a price fixed by the agent in San 
Francisco — we saved y\ dollars on each ticket. 

I have the circular of the Association giving the 
official list of members for 1888. They have offices in 
138 towns. The first purchaser gains by the transaction, 
the agency gains, and the second purchaser gains. 
Sometimes one ticket will pass through half a dozen 
hands. All this is so much loss to the companies. 

Saturday, November yd. — We left San Francisco at 
9.30 a.m. for Virginia City. It was a sunny, warm da}-, 
but after leaving Sacramento the line rises to a great 
height, and it got colder and colder, until a heavy snow- 
storm came on. The porter lighted the stove in the 
Pulman car^ and burnt the evil-smelling coal so common 
in the States, so that we were almost suffocated, and 
were thankful to leave the train at midnight at Reno, 
where we got a bed at the little station hotel, which is 
quite clean and acceptable. 

Next morning we were up early, and off by train to 
Virginia City, to see the celebrated silver-mines. We 
expected to have to spend a night there, but luckily met 
a gentleman in the train who told us we could see every- 
thing in the day, and return to Reno. Edward had 
asked for return tickets, but, being told they were only 
good for the day of issue, had not taken them. Our 
fellow-traveller told us they were the same price as the 
single tickets. In any European ticket office the clerk 
would certainly have told a stranger of this arrange- 
ment, and that the time allowed would be ample for 
seeing the mines. 



T2S Five Months^ Fine Weather 

The run to Virginia City was very interesting, up hill 
all the way, and probably prettier than usual on account 
of the snow which covered everything. It is a district 
of narrow gorges with rivers running through them 
which supply water-power for the quartz mills. 
Virginia City looks as if it had been thrown at the 
precipitous mountain side, and had stuck on as best it 
could. 

Edward presented his letters of introduction to Mr. 
Lyman, of the Comstock Consolidated Mine, who settled 
for us to go down the mine at i o'clock, so we went off 
and had a good lunch at the very unpromising-looking 
International Hotel. 

The descent proved to be a very serious business. 
First we had to change our clothes for costumes pro- 
vided by the company, consisting merely of trousers 
and long blouses of blue serge, cap, thick boots and 
stockings. The only difference between us was that I 
wore my blouse outside, and tried to imagine it looked 
like a petticoat. A thick waterproof coat is worn until 
the low level is reached, where the heat is very great. 
We descended 1650 feet, and went through lofty pas- 
sages nearly all supported by timber. Some of the 
supports were bent and curved by the enormous pressure 
of the earth above. They have to be constantly watched 
and renewed. Our guide pointed out in several places 
timbers that had been twelve years in position, and 
become quite hard. We brought away a piece of wood 
from the 1550 level that is as close and hard as a stone. 
It is an enormous mine. The last point of interest 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 129 

visited is the Sutro Tunnel^ made to drain all the Corn- 
stock lode ; it is many thousands of feet long, and 
contains a big stream. 

The Comstock lode was discovered in 1859, ^'''cl 
already 500,000,000 dollars have been taken out of it 
It now yields four millions a year. This kind of mine is 
not so speculative as the old nugget-finding business. 
When a lode is discovered it can be tested to a certain 
extentj as to how far it goes, and how rich it is in 
metals. 

On returning to the upper world we were turned into 
a luxurious dressing-room at the back of the office, with 
bath and hot towels, and gladly resumed our own 
garments. Then we were taken over the works to see 
the machinery, which differs in several respects from 
that at the Montana Mine. The Comstock people have 
an electrical process of separation. 

There is no danger in silver-mines from foul and 
inflammable gases, as in coal-mines ; but sometimes 
the old timbering takes fire. The water is taken off by 
the Sutro Tunnel, to which each mine pays it share. 
The water used for the hydraulic machinery is also 
conveyed away by the tunnel, so that they get an extra 
fall of 1700 feet. 

We had a rush to catch our train back to Reno, but 
we just managed it, and so we were able to continue 
our journey by the midnight train to Ogden. We got 
lovver berths in the Pulman car^ and slept, notwithstand- 
ing the bitter cold. Next day we passed over a per- 
fectly flat plain with a line of hills in the distance on 

K 



130 Five Months' Fine Weather 

each side. Usually this journey is very dusty and 
ugly, but the snow had remedied all that, and though 
monotonous it was really pretty. Edward saw a wolf 
cross the line. They abound in that country. 

The platforms outside the cars were occupied by 
Indians, who have the privilege of riding free on this 
line, because it went through their reservation without 
paying them anything. They were dressed in the ordi- 
nary way except for their hats and that they wrapped 
themselves in blankets instead of overcoats. We could 
not induce them to talk. 

We arrived at Ogden at 11 p.m., and put up at the 
little station hotel, just in time to secure the last bed- 
room. A lady and gentleman who followed us had to 
take a sitting-room. Next morning we left Ogden at 
9.40 a.m., arriving at Salt Lake City at 11 a.m. We 
saw the Lake from the train, and, not far from the city, 
we passed some boiling springs, so close to the Lake 
that the railway had only just room to pass between 
them. There is a great bathing establishment on the 
Lake, which was closed for the winter. In summer 
great numbers go there for the salt-water bathing. The 
country between Ogden and Salt Lake City is well 
cultivated and covered by herds of fine cattle and 
horses. 

We went at once to Walker House Hotel, which was 
very stuffy and disagreeable, quite a third-rate house. 
The Walkers were formerly Mormons, but have left the 
church ; still I was surprised to see on sale in the hotel 
hall, tracts and pamphlets abusing the Morm.ons, and 



ill Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 131 

insulting photographs, and Mrs. Stenhouse's book. 
There is said to be a new and better hotel, called 
" Cullens." 

Edward had a letter of introduction to Mr. Young, a 
son of Brigham Young, but he was away, so another 
eminent Mormon, Mr. B,, and an old gentleman, Mr. A., 
one of the early believers, kindly took us to see the 
tabernacle and other objects of interest. The tabernacle 
is an immense building remarkable for its roof, 250 feet 
by 1 50 feet, in one span without any other support than 
the outer walls. The architect was Brigham Young, 
who invented the plan in the night, probably it was 
revealed to him in a dream. Wreaths of evergreens put 
up ten years ago still decorate the roof, because it was 
found they improved the acoustic properties of the hall, 
which seats 8000 people. We were taken to the gallery 
opposite the platform to hear a pin dropped in a hat, and 
the keeper whisper to us across the whole building. 
Both sounds came clearly to us, but I noticed that when 
he spoke aloud, the voice seemed blurred as it were^ and 
the words were not distinct. 

Mr. B. stated that every Sunday 25 per cent, of the 
whole population attended service in the temple. A 
lady told me that nothing can equal the miserable faces 
of the women of the congregation. 

The unfinished Temple close by is a splendid edifice 
of white granite. This is to supersede the present 
Endowment House, if it is ever finished, and all the 
secret rites, to which Gentiles are not admitted, will be 
performed there, such as baptisms, marriages, &c., which 

K 2 



L^2 Five Months' Fine Weather 

they call the ordinances, so it is cut up inside into small 
apartments, which is a pity. The architecture is heavy, 
but imposing. 

From there we went to the Gardo House, a very 
common-place villa, built for himself by Brigham 
Young, who did not live to occupy it. Our guides told 
us he meant to have " invited" his favourite wife Amelia 
to live with him there, and two rooms at the back of the 
house had been specially fitted up for the mother of his 
eldest son. The other wives would have remained over 
the way, at the Lion House, I suppose, with the nume- 
rous gables. We thought at first there was a gable for 
each wife, but that could not be the case, for there were 
only nine or ten gables. 

The Gardo House is not worth visiting. The man in 
charge told us that, a few days before our visit, a lady 
tourist came alone, and asked to look round. He 
showed her into the drawing-room, and then addressed 
her thus, " Madam, how is it that you, a lady, dare 
venture thus alone into the power of a family of 
Mormons, of whom you have heard such dreadful 
accounts ? Are you not afraid to come here, where 
there is none to help you ? " The lady, no doubt 
thinking him mad, for he looks a complete lunatic, made 
at once for the hall door and fled. 

Mr. B. then drove us to Fort Douglass, the United 
States military station, from which there is a beautiful 
view over the city and plains to the mountains, now 
finer than usual with the newly-fallen snow. 

On our way back to the hotel we passed a polling 



in C ana day Western U.S., and Mexico. 133 

station, which reminded us that the Presidential election 
was going on. Utah not being a state, the election was 
only for local officers and the representative to Congress, 
who has not the same rights as a state representative. 
We stopped to see how the polling was carried on, and 
were allowed to go right into the booth. In CaHfornia 
no one is allowed to go within 150 feet of it, except for 
the purpose of voting. 

This was the process : — There are five election judges 
who correspond to our returning agents, and are nomi- 
nated by the Government, but one must belong to the 
minority party. These five men sit at the back of a 
counter, on which are the ballot boxes. No one else is 
allowed there by the law, but, as a matter of fact, there 
were two others, one a policeman. By the ballot boxes 
are piles of small envelopes. The voter receives his 
voting-paper, which is printed, from the political 
agents, and brings it with him, and puts it into an 
envelope he takes from the pile, gums it up, and puts it 
in the box. There is no writing, no mark, no number 
of any kind, to distinguish one vote from another, so no 
scrutiny is possible. It seemed to us that there would 
be no difficulty in manipulating either papers or boxes. 

Mr. A. was not allowed to vote because he was known 
to have two wives, though on account of his great age, 
he is not molested by the Government, who are now 
punishing polygamy by imprisonment, and have about 
400 Mormons locked up. The President himself is in 
hiding. The difficulty seems to me to be that, legally, 
the Mormons are not married at all. They only go 



134 Five Months' Fine Weather 

through their mysterious ceremony in the Endowment 
House, which I suppose has no legal weight. 

During the drive I tried to have a little talk with Mr. 
A. about Mormonism, of which I knew absolutely 
nothing. My aim was to discover the important doc- 
trine differing from other churches founded on the 
Bible, which induced the Mormons to cut themselves 
adrift from the rest of the world. Mr. A. could tell me 
of none. " Our principles," said he, " are all contained 
in the Gospels." 

He preferred to tell me his own history. He is now 
over seventy years of age^ and is evidently a man who 
would have fallen a prey to any religious excitement ; he 
is the type of the religious fanatic. Mormonism 
happened to be the religious craze of the day, so he 
plunged into that. He came to Salt Lake City in i8$2 
from Manchester, accompanied by his wife, who was 
also a convert. Such was their haste to reach the 
promised land, that they started within a short time of 
his wife's confinement, which took place on board ship, 
and of course the baby died. As soon as they reached 
New York a child sickened, but they did not stop for 
that, on they went, and it died on the way. Leaving 
the poor little corpse unburied in the dead-house, they 
hurried on, and another, and then another child 
sickened and died, so that of seven children they lost five 
on their way to Zion. Mr. A. seemed to think this 
greatly to his credit, and that our Lord would be pleased 
that he had sacrificed his children. I did not like to 
remind him that Moloch was the god who liked to have 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 135 

children slain on his altar, but I did say that I should 
have thought God's curse was on the journey, and I 
should have hurried back at once. It was useless to ask 
for information why he did all this, he would continue 
his autobiography. 

On arriving at Zion, his wife gave him a second wife, 
and they have " lived like sisters together, bringing up 
their families side by side." He had had seventeen 
children. I noticed that Mr. B., who was talking busi- 
ness with Edward, kept one eye on us as soon as 
religion was mentioned, and he often interrupted the 
conversation. 

Next morning he called and offered to answer me any 
questions I wished to ask, so I asked if polygamy was 
an essential point in their religion. He said belief in it 
was, although not 10 percent, of the Mormons practised 
it. A man must obtain permission from the President 
himself^ and must show that he had means to support 
two or more families, and also that his character 
entitled him to the privilege. I reminded him of the 
projected settlement in Canada, where they had under- 
taken not to practise polygamy ; he said they " would 
only take one wife to Canada, and leave the others in 
Utah." 

They believe that Joseph Smith was inspired, and 
that their elders are inspired, not always, so as to be 
infallible, but occasionally, which must be an un- 
comfortable state of things, for who is to decide when 
a prophet is inspired and when not ? Then he wandered 
off into vague talk about their belief that God was in 



136 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

the wind and the sunshine as much as in miracles, and 
that they could put no limit to His power, they could 
not say that He should no longer inspire men as of old. 
Evidently he was not going to tell us anything serious. 

We visited the celebrated Co-operative Stores, which 
only appeared to differ from the Civil Service Stores 
in the curious particular, that prices were not marked 
in plain figures. I understand that the profits, which 
must be very large, go to the elders or shareholders, 
not like the real co-operative stores which divide them 
among the purchasers. 

We went to the museum, a small place belonging to 
the Mormons, where they treasure a scrap of satin 
damask from the furniture in Windsor Castle, a bit 
of guimp from the Tuilleries curtains, an iron stove 
presented by Brigham Young to the first lady who 
became a plural wife, and other odds and ends. 

I found a picture representing an angel in the usual 
white robes and wings, but with a beard like a prophet, 
and a man kneeling before him, so I asked for an 
explanation, which the keeper of the museum gave me 
fully. It was a portrait of the angel Moroni, or 
Mormon, who told Joseph Smith where to find the 
golden tablets of the Books of Mormon. The original 
picture was drawn from the description given by Smith 
and four or five others of the original Mormons who 
saw the angel. I did not know before that there had 
been an angel in the case, but the old fellow told 
me that Moroni was a prophet who lived in America 
A.D. 400, and wrote a book in strange characters on 



in Canada^ Westei'n U.S.^ and Mexico. 137 

golden tablets, and buried it and died, apparently with- 
out doing anything particular. The book remained 
hidden until Joseph Smith found favour in the eyes of 
Moroni, whose angel appeared to him and pointed out 
the place of burial. Smith dug up the golden plates 
and translated them, and then the angel, with true 
American economy, took back the precious tablets. I 
began to laugh at the absurd tale, but I found that it 
really is part of the Mormon creed. 

I found at the Walker Hotel a little paper giving the 
Thirteen Articles of Faith of the Mormon Church : — 

"Articles of Faith of the Mormon Church. 

" I. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in 
His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 

" 2. We believe that men will be punished for their 
own sins and not for Adam's transgression. 

" 3. We believe that through the atonement of 
Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the 
laws and ordinances of the Gospel. 

" 4. We believe that these ordinances are : First, 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; second, Repentance ; 
third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins ; 
fourth. Laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy 
Ghost. 

" 5. We believe that a man must be called of God, 
by 'prophecy, and by the laying on of hands,' by those 
who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and admi- 
nister in the ordinances thereof. 



138 Five Months' Fine Weather 

" 6. We believe in the same organization that existed 
in the primitive church, viz. apostles, prophets, pas- 
tors, teachers, evangelists, &c. 

" 7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, 
revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, 
&c. 

" 8. We believe the Bible to be the Word of God, as 
far as it is translated correctly ; we also believe the 
Book of Mormon to be the Word of God. 

"9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that 
He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet 
reveal many great and important things pertaining to 
the Kingdom of God. 

" 10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and 
in the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion will 
be built upon this continent. That Christ will reign 
personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be 
renewed and receive its paradisic glory. 

"II. We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty 
God according to the dictates of our conscience, and 
allow all men the same privilege, let them worship 
how, where or what they may. 

"12. We believe in being subject to kings, presi- 
dents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honouring 
and sustaining the law. 

"13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, be- 
nevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men ; in- 
deed, we may say that we follow the admonition of 
Paul, ' We believe all things, we hope all things,' we 
have endured many things, and hope to be able to 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 139 

endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely 
or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these 
things." 

The tenth article is very curious, and must be taken 
from the book of Mormon. There is surely no text in 
the Bible that can be twisted into a reference to America 
as the inheritance of the chosen people. 

We left Salt Lake City on the 7th of November, and 
travelled with a gentleman from the Eastern States 
settled in Utah, and his mother, who had been on a 
visit to him, and they told us a good deal about the 
Mormons. Putting aside, as manifestly untrue, the 
horrible tales current in Salt Lake City, where of course 
there is a great deal of friction between the Gentiles 
and the Mormon population, there remains quite 
sufficient to show that they are very undesirable mem- 
bers of a nation. They will not allow the ordinary 
laws of the country to govern them. Their object is to 
be a community to themselves, governed by their own 
officers, or, as they say, the Church, which consists of 
the President and a body called, I think. Apostles. 
These men claim and obtain absolute power over the 
mass of the Mormons. If any disposition to rebel is 
shown, immediately an elder has a revelation which 
of course all believers are bound to obey. Formerly 
stronger measures were used. Officers called Destroy- 
ing Angels would shoot down offenders in the streets, 
and it was on this account that Uncle Sam built Fort 
Douglass and keeps a whole regiment there. Even 
Mr. S. said that Salt Lake City would be more 



140 Five Months' Fine Weather 

prosperous if it were not that there is a constant fear 
of the Mormons doing something violent. 

The Mormons are still sufficiently in the majority to 
keep the City government entirely in their own hands. 
The young men are allowed to mix with the world, but 
the girls are kept in, and are taught that their only 
salvation is in marriage. The Mormon women are 
said to be very immoral, even Amelia, the Prophet's 
favourite wife, having sunk to the lowest depths. In 
families children cling to their own mothers, and are 
jealous of the other wives' families, so that there is 
great bitterness and heart-burning, and polygamy 
would die out of itself were it not that the heads of the 
church hold to it, as a means of fixing members they 
fear to lose. Our informant told us he had a friend 
who refused to go on a mission, thereby exciting the 
suspicions of the elders, who compelled him to take a 
second wife, much against his inclination. 

Several important members have left the body, 
notably the Walkers, who provided for all their wives, 
and returned to decent life. The tithe, which is levied 
from all the community, is a stumbling-block to many. 
The large sums raised are paid to the Church, and are 
never accounted for, and it is the general belief that they 
go into private pockets, and that the Temple will never 
be completed because it forms a good excuse for the 
disappearance of the funds. It was commenced about 
1850. 

Polygamy is said to be more common in the country 
than in Salt Lake City itself Peasants marry several 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. i.|i 

wives, not because they want wives, but because they 
want field-labourers. A gentleman told us he had been 
in a hovel near Provo, where an old man lived with two 
wives and six grown-up daughters, two of these women, 
half-sisters, were to be married that week to a neighbour, 
as old as their father, who only wanted them to work on 
his farm. Rich Mormons, we were told, bought farms 
in different parts of the country, and established a wife 
on each farm, who managed it for her husband, he going 
to visit her when it was time to collect the profits. 

It was three o'clock (November 7th) when we left 
Salt Lake City, and shortly after crossed a pretty little 
stream called the " River of Jordan." Our train was 
three and a half hours late, said to be a most unusual 
thing on this line. A broken axle on a goods' train had 
delayed the San Francisco express. 

It was a brilliant starlight night and Castle Gate 
looked wonderfully grand. It is a bare rock sloping a 
little on one side, but perfectly perpendicular on the side 
fronting the railway, and quite on the edge of the line. 
It is 400 to 500 feet high, and only twenty to thirty feet 
broad. I believe there is a similar-shaped, but smaller, 
rock opposite. Some years ago a sailor, who was 
working on the road as foreman of a gang of plate- 
layers, undertook to go up it and plant the national flag- 
on the top. It was considered an impossible feat, but 
one morning he went there with his gang, who were 
delighted to assist him, and somehow he got up and 
fulfilled his promise. The flag-staff is still there, but of 
course the flag has been torn to bits by the wind. 



142 Five Months' Fine Weather 

The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad is the most 
uncomfortable line we came across in our travels. The 
food in the buffet car was uneatable. There was actually- 
only one Q%g on board. The berths are very uncom- 
fortable on account of the narrow gauge, I tried an 
upper berth, but could not sleep. The cold was intense, 
as the porter let the fire go out. About five o'clock I 
got up, and took refuge in the first-class carriage, which 
was very warm. 

Luckily, we got an excellent breakfast at Cimarron, 
and then, warmed and comforted, we settled ourselves on 
the platform at the back of the carriage to enjoy the 
grand scenery. The much-advertised observation car 
did not put in an appearance. It was a very fine 
sunny day, the snow five or six inches deep, and the cold 
so great that the Gunnison river was frozen quite across 
in several places, though it is a rapid stream. 

As the train was so late, we arrived at the Black 
Canon in broad daylight instead of at 5 a.m. We were 
disappointed with it. It was fine, but not equal to our 
expectations, but Marshall's Pass exceeded them. It is 
glorious. The train winds up the mountain-side for 
about two hours through magnificent scenery, all the 
grander for the covering of deep snow. As we emerged 
from every snow-shed, we could look down on the road 
we had just travelled, and sometimes we could see it 
double three or four times. The Ouray mountains 
form the background, and are seen from so many 
different points of vievv^ that we could hardly believe it 
was always the same range. Many other fine moun- 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 143 

tains, whose names nobody knew, completed the 
picture. At the top of the Pass there is an immense 
snow-shed, in which the train halts for examination of 
wheels, &c., before commencing the descent, which is 
very steep, with many sharp curves. Everybody got 
out of the train, and marched about. The other pas- 
sengers were much amused at my pocketing a splinter 
of wood off the shed to take home as a souvenir. One 
gentleman " guessed " he would take a rail home. I 
believe we were the only tourists in the train. We were 
fortunate in having a very pleasant conductor over this 
part of the line, who told us which way to look for 
views. The run down hill was very fine. The second 
engine, that had helped to pull us up, ran some way in 
front of us to make sure the line was in order. We 
could generally see it on the zigzags of the line running 
in the opposite direction to what we were going. 

We arrived desperately hungry at Salida, where we 
found an excellent dinner. A German-American young 
lady called her father's attention to the energy with 
which we attacked the roast turkey. She was quite 
shocked by our voracity, but she had been living on the 
fat of the land at Salida for some days, while we had 
hardly had a well-cooked meal since leaving Vancouver. 

Again we put on all our rugs, and settled ourselves to 
brave the cold at the back of the car for the sake of the 
grand Canon of the Arkansas and the Royal Gorge. It 
was very cold, very smoky, and very dusty ; but the 
scenery was worth the discomfort. The caiaon is very 
pretty — the rocks come close to the river, and are very 



144 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

steep and grand, and broken into fine shapes ; but the 
Royal Gorge is overpowering. It is worthy of the 
Canadian Pacific, it is so sternly grand, the rocks so 
lofty and precipitous. There is only just room for rail 
(a single line, narrow gauge) and river ; indeed in one 
part the road is actually suspended over the river, and 
the colouring was very fine. The sun was in the west, 
and did not shine straight down the caiion, but caught 
a peak here, a boulder there, bringing cut the rich red 
of the granite. This again is worth all the trouble of 
the whole journey. It is sublime. 

Daylight just lasted long enough for us to see all the 
canon. Soon after leaving it dusk came on, and we saw 
no more. We arrived at Colorado Springs about 
7.30 p.m. and went to the Antlers Hotel, which is stuffy, 
badly managed, and the food wretched. 

The excitement about the Presidential Election was 
very great everywhere. It was practically certain that 
Harrison was elected, although all the returns were not 
in, and his supporters were shaking hands and crowing 
lustily. Unfortunately, the man in charge of the 
luggage was a Republican, and showed his joy by 
pitching the boxes about wildly. The unfortunate 
Democrats were regretting not only their defeat, but 
their lost bets. A brakesman on the train had lost his 
gold watch, which he had staked against four silver 
ones, his thirty dollars overcoat just bought for the 
winter, his coat, hat, and shirt. 

We met that day a curious example of American 
manners. When Edward went to the Pulman car 



in Canada^ Western US., and Mexico. 145 

lavatory in the morning he found three railway-men at 
their abkitions. They brushed their hair with the 
Puhiian brush, and they used the Pulman soap and 
towels ; the passengers had to wait until these men had 
finished. 

Friday y November (^th. — We took a carriage and drove 
first to Manitou, a pretty village just at the foot of Pike's 
Peak. Here we tasted natural soda-water from the 
great spring, and then drove on to Ute Pass, as far as 
the Rainbow Falls, a nice little waterfall, which may 
catch a ray of sunshine for about five minutes during the 
day. The pass is a pretty rocky defile. From there 
we went to the Garden of the Gods, 500 acres of waste 
land with remarkable sandstone rocks. The most 
ordinary shape is the mushroom, the head being a 
different kind of stone from the stalk. The Tower of 
Babel, Jupiter, and the Cathedral are very large rocks. 
Unfortunately the Cathedral spires are not on the 
Cathedral, but some paces off, as if they had been 
brought there ready to put on when the Cathedral was 
completed. The Cathedral forms one side of the 
Beautiful Gate, and the Sentinel the other. After pass- 
ing through it, we looked back on the wonderful scene. 
The sun was on the Gate^ making the red sandstone 
rocks glow, and through them, as if in a frame, were the 
beautiful green slopes leading up to the snow-covered 
Pike's Peak. The sky was intensely blue. Altogether 
the combination of form and colour made a perfect 
picture. Close to the red Cathedral is a curious white 
rock. 

L 



146 Five Months Fine Weather 

We drove on to Glen Eyrie, where our driver assured 
us there was nothing to see, so, as we fooh'shly believed 
him, we missed the curious rock called the Major Domo. 
The drive back from Glen Eyrie is over a curious, 
natural embankment, from which the views, towards the 
mountains on one side, and over the immense plains on 
the other, are very fine. 

Colorado Springs is a great health-resort — people 
come even from England. The air is so pure, dry and 
bracing, that people who settle here in good health, 
merely for business purposes, find it difficult to live any- 
where else afterwards. We heard of a case of con- 
sumption stopped by the wonderful Colorado climate, 
but the poor fellow was obliged to remain there for the 
rest of his life. In the summer invalids go up to the 
parks, which are said to be very beautiful. The skies 
of Colorado are famous for their beauty, and certainly 
we have seen none finer except at Biarritz, where the 
sunsets are unrivalled. After making some purchases 
of the handiwork of the Navajo Indians, who live some- 
where in the neighbourhood, we took the 4.10 p.m. train 
for Denver, passing the small Palmer Lake and the 
Castle Rock, which is very handsome, on the way, as 
well as many of the curious rocks of Monument Park. 
W^e arrived at Denver frightfully hungry ; but owing to 
the hotel boy, a mere child, telling us that dinner went 
on until 8 o'clock, we reached the dining-room just too 
late, and could get nothing but supper. Why so large 
an hotel should stop dinner at 7.30 is a question I 
recommend to the consideration of the director who 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 147 

sent us there. Supper is a most disagreeable meal. 
We made a considerable disturbance. We interviewed 
the manager, but could not even get a plateful of soup. 
The Windsor is a good hotel, with exceptionally stupid 
and careless clerks, even for America. 

Saturday, November loth. — Fair, but very cold. We 
walked about the town, which has grown rapidly to a 
very fine large city, and bought some buffalo robes, 
which we had been searching for all our journey. They 
used to be very plentiful and cheap ; but now all the 
buffaloes are killed, and the shopkeeper, an Englishman, 
named Taylor, said he did not expect he should get 
any more. We got also another Navajo Indian blanket. 
It is said the women stretch the warp from one tree to 
another, instead of in a loom. 

After dinner we went to a friend's rooms, opposite the 
hotel, to see the great triumphal Republican torchlight 
procession. Before leaving the hotel we had the pleasure 
of hearing a performance on the drum by Major 
Hendershof, known as the Drummer Boy of the Rappa- 
hannock, accompanied by his son on a big drum, and a 
stout party on the flute. It was the first time we ever 
heard the drum as a solo instrument, and we were 
delighted with it. They came with the Leadville 
Republican Drum Band, which marched into the large 
hall of the hotel military fashion, and gave us several 
tunes. The favourite national air in the Northern States 
is " Marching through Georgia." It was always a great 
satisfaction to me to find that though the Northerners 
hate us much, they hate the South still more, and the 

L 2 



14^ Five Months' Fine Weather 

South have a very lively contempt for Northerners. 
Ireland and England are bosom cronies compared to the 
North and South. 

The procession came up the main street, and turned 
along the cross street, and, as our friend's rooms were at 
the corner, we saw it splendidly. It took an hour and a 
half to pass. The procession was a curious mixture of 
politics and advertisements. First came, as part of the 
procession itself, two platoons of police on large white 
horses, then the Pioneer Corps Old Guard, a most 
exclusive club, which never exceeds twelve members, 
and wears bearskin hats and magnificent uniforms. 
Then came an unhappy democrat, who, in fulfilment of 
a bet, had to walk in the republican procession carry- 
ing a banner inscribed, " I am of the spoils " ; he was 
enthusiastically cheered. Then came, according to the 
newspapers, a number of generals with their " aides " 
and stafts, colonels, majors, and commodores without 
end, probably all decent shopkeepers of Denver. Then 
clubs in quaint uniforms carrying banners with amusing 
inscriptions, " Grover, Grover, did you ever get left?" 
" Grover, Grover, get out of the clover." " Please pass 
the crow to Grover." This refers to a celebrated ban- 
quet in Chicago. Bets were made by twenty-four 
gentlemen that they would dine together after the 
election, and the twelve victors should feast on snipe, 
while the twelve vanquished should each consume a 
roast crow. Grover is Mr. Cleveland's christian name. 
Carts decorated with banners and lanterns came at 
inter\'als, sometimes entirely commercial, as, " Ask your 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 149 

grocer for Bluine ;" sometimes wholly patriotic ; some- 
times a judicious mixture, as " Celebrate our Victory 
with Heidsieck's dry champagne, importer (name and 
address followed). The principal milliner had sent out 
a car with all her young ladies on board. A favourite 
emblem was the rooster, especially perched on the top of 
a broom wrapped in the national flag. Several carts 
contained men throwing fire about and fireworks. When 
they passed we had to shut the windows. One club 
called itself the " Devil's Own Crew," and was led by his 
Majesty. Many leading merchants of Denver rode in 
the procession. There was a coloured contingent, which 
is not a usual feature in republican demonstrations as 
the negroes are mostly democrats. Of course, there 
were several bands of music, and many amusing devices. 
On the following Monday at noon, there was to be 
another procession, which unfortunately we did not see. 
Several democrats had, in fulfilment of bets, to wheel 
victorious republicans in barrows dov/n the main street. 
There seemed to be no end to the bets on the election, 
not only jokes like this, but money bets. A lady in the 
hotel had won a large sum through a New York broker 
in the ordinary business way. 

There is a great deal to see round Denver by excur- 
sions of two or three days, but the weather was too cold 
for that kind of thing. In Denver itself there is little of 
interest. A gentleman took us to see some smelting 
works, which were interesting, and afterwards drove us 
round the residential part of the town, where there are 
many good houses and fine churches, Denver is the 



150 Five Months Fine Weather 

handsomest and most prosperous-looking town we saw 
after leaving Chicago, which it excels in beauty of situa- 
tion. The long range of snow mountains in the distance 
is very fine. 

Moiulaj', November 12th. — We left Denver at 7.30 a.m. 
by the Fort Texas and Fort Worth line for Trinidad. 
We did this to escape a night in the cars, and also to see 
the country by daylight. We had reluctantly given up 
the Silverton excursion, on account of the snow. We 
were getting a little tired, too, of caiions and passes, and 
perpetual railway journeys. 

The run to Trinidad was very beautiful. The Spanish 
Peaks and the Sangre de Christo range are well seen, 
and the grand Pike's Peak is hardly ever out of sight. 
The view from the top must be very extensive ; but, un- 
fortunately, we were six weeks too late to make the 
ascent, which is not difficult and is made on " burros," 
i.e. donkeys. Many Spanish words have got into the 
American language in the old Mexican provinces. The 
Grand Union Hotel at Trinidad was very dirty, and the 
food quite uneatable, but nobody ought to omit visiting 
Trinidad on that account. It is wonderfully well 
situated. A river runs through the middle of the town ; 
on one side is Fisher's Peak, a mountain with a remark- 
able rock at the very top, shaped like an anvil, and on 
the opposite side are smaller hills, on one of which is a 
monument to the earliest pioneer, after whom it was 
named Simpson's Rest. Fisher was also one ofthe first 
settlers. The town appeared to be growing fast, and 
could boast already some large works and fine houses, 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 151 

but the old town is Mexican, witli adobe buildings and 
curious beehive-shaped ovens in front of the houses. 
There are coal-mines close to the town, so coal is only 
one dollar per ton, while in San Francisco it was twenty- 
two dollars. 

Tuesday, November I'^th. — We were five minutes late 
for breakfast, so could not even get a poached ^%g, 
though it was only nine o'clock. We took another 
walk round the town and then came in and sat in our 
bedroom. Next (5oor was the public sitting-room, which 
had been let to some travelling dentists. We smelt the 
ether, and heard the groans of the victim through the 
closed doors, and then the encouraging remark of the 
dentist, " All right, they are all out ! " All ! ! ! 

By-and-by the porter came and said we must leave 
our room, it was let, but we might sit in the public room 
with the dentist, if we liked. We did not feel equal to 
that, so we went out again and walked to the station, 
buying six lemons for twenty cents on the way. We 
begged a glass of water, and astonished and amused the 
grocer very much by squeezing a lemon into the water 
and drinking it. It was quite a new idea to him. The 
glass was very dirty, but then everything in Trinidad 
was dirty. The streets were full of dead cats, dead 
rabbitSj old hats and boots, bones, and tin cans. 

We left Trinidad at 12.35, and were very glad to get 
a good dinner at Raton. We had a very disagreeable 
journey of twenty-seven hours to El Paso. The scenery 
is desolate and ugly, plains of sage brush, scrub and 
sand, with low hills in the distance. The only amuse- 



152 Five Months' Fine Weather 

ment was watching for the prairie dogs, of which we saw 
numbers sitting on their burrows, which look hke very- 
large ant-hills. 

The car was very uncomfortable. Several passengers 
had their food with them and ate on board, a most 
objectionable practice, as the smell of food pervades the 
car, instead of meal-times being used for ventilation. I 
suppose it is economical, but it is dirty. There were 
two dreadful children on board. One, a puny, miserable- 
looking baby, that cried and moaned without ceasing 
for over twenty hours. At last I suggested to its mother 
she should retire to the ladies' lavatory with it for a 
time. " Ah ! " she said, " I don't think it would do 
baby any good/' "At any rate," said I cruelly, "it 
would be a great relief to the rest of us." Curiously 
enough, that baby ceased its lamentations and behaved 
quite well the rest of the way. The other was a fine 
merry boy, who would have been capital fun anywhere 
else, but he made a dreadful noise and played horses up 
and down the car with his nurse. His parents had taken 
the drawing-room, where they enjoyed peace, and left 
Friedrich in the car for our benefit. The sun was 
blazing, but the hot-water pipes in the car were kept 
too hot to touch all day, as if it had been very cold. 

The cattle we passed looked very thin and weak ; often 
we saw dead cows lying about, and often heaps of their 
bones. It has been a very bad season, no rain for 
eighteen months, and, therefore, no food for the cattle, 
which are entering the winter season in very bad con- 
dition. If it prove severe, the loss will be great. 



ill Canada, Westei'u U.S., and Mexico. 153 

El Paso is a pretty, prosperous little town, with a hideous 
new court-house, a very fair hotel, called the Grand 
Central, and large smelting works. Ore is brought in 
great quantities from Mexico, as well as from the States, 
because it is easier to work a mixture of different ores* 
than all from one mine. Tiiere is a heavy import duty 
on metals, but none on ore. 

A tram-line, the only international line in the world, 
took us to Paso del Norte, just across the frontier. We 
visited the old church of adobe, or sun-dried brick, 
whitewashed. Inside, the church is very quaint, with a 
fine roof of semi-circular carved beams. There were 
many shops selling Mexican goods, and the whole place 
looked foreign, and the people dressed Mexican fashion 
and smelt of garlic. The Mexican Central Station is a 
v^ery fine building. This is an English line. Americans 
never build handsome " depots," as they call stations. 

We left El Paso at 4 p.m. on November isth^and had 
our luggage examined by a gorgeous person with a tall 
sombrero and a pistol, and no end of silver braid and 
buttons. He was perfectly polite and pleasant, as we 
found afterwards is the universal custom of Mexicans. 
Our plan had included visits to Chihuahua and Zacatecas ; 
but Mr. Mackenzie, of the Mexican Central, advised us 
not to stop there, because it would be very cold as they 
are on very high ground, and the hotels are poor, so we 
went on to Quert'taro. We found Friedrich on board 
the Pulman car, but he behaved better, being perhaps 
rather tired. Chihuahua looked very pretty from the 
train ; it is tv ( miles from the station. The country 



154 /^/^^^ ]\Touths' Fine Weather 

was much the same as in New Mexico as far as Zacatecas. 
We arrived there at 8.20 a.m. on November 17th. 

Zacatecas is a great mining centre, and worthy of a 
visit. The mines are close to the line, so that we saw in 
one place horses trampling the ore, and in another we 
saw water being drawn from the mines in raw-hide 
buckets. It is said that labour is so cheap here that 
machinery does not pay. The town is surrounded by 
lovely hills and deep ravines, and is full of fine churches. 
From Zacatecas to Mexico the country is very pretty, 
and sometimes exceedingly beautiful. We spent all the 
morning at the back of the car. We reached Aguas 
Calientes, a very pretty place, about noon, and had a 
good meal there. The vegetation was a great delight 
to us. Every now and then a new plant appeared, first 
rare, then gradually becoming common. First came the 
magvey or aloe, a single plant here and there, but later 
there were great fields of it, as it is cultivated largely in 
Mexico. Then we caught sight of an " organ cactus," 
first a {q\\ spikes at long intervals, later on great hedges 
of it. The hills are finer as one gets south, and more 
varied in their shapes. We admired a curious bell- 
shaped peak, but could not learn its name. At En- 
carnacion there is a high trestle-bridge worthy of notice. 
At Silao we got a poor dinner, the only bad meal on 
the road. 

The railway-station appears to be the favourite lounge 
of the people. Many bring baskets made of straw and 
horsehair, gloves, sweets, fruit, and other little things, to 
sell to the passengers. The " dulce de Celaya," a mix- 



ill Canada, Wcstei-n L/.S., and Mexico. 155 

ture of goats' milk and sugar, nicely flavoured, is very 
good. 

There was a guard of soldiers at every station, who, if 
not useful, were very ornamental. After the long years 
of war. first against the Spanish Viceroys, then amongst 
themselves, and then the American and French inva- 
sions, numbers of men who had been soldiers took to 
the road as brigands, and plundered the trains and 
coaches, especially those carrying bullion. President 
Diaz took the matter in hand, and it is said that now 
the last highway robber has been shot. 

The people are very good-looking, with the blackest 
hair and eyes, the whitest teeth, and the most picturesque 
rags ever seen. 

We left the train at Queretaro at 10.35 P-m., after a 
journey of fifty-four and a half hours. We had tele- 
graphed for a carriage, vi^hich met us at the station, and 
off we went in the dark, until we pulled up at a portc- 
cocJicre carefully shut and bolted. It was the Hotel del 
Ferro Carril. Our driver knocked hard until some one 
came, and they had a long conversation together before 
we were admitted. We then found ourselves in a small 
court-yard surrounded by a building one storey high, no 
light, except the lantern of the man who had admitted 
us, and the glorious stars. The man rushed off for a 
key, and showed us into a long, narrow room, with no 
window and tiled floor. He unrolled a hearth-rug, and 
put it by the bedside, and then rushed off again for the 
sheets and blankets. It was too small a room 
for two, so he had to fetch a second key and 



I 56 Five Months' Fine Weather 

more blankets. Everything was very clean, but 
the mosquitoes took care we did not sleep. Perhaps, 
too, we were rather excited at finding ourselves at last 
in Mexico. People always pulled long faces when we 
said we were going to Mexico, and advised us to carry 
revolvers, and described the natives as nothing short of 
ogres, who spent all their time robbing and slaying the 
unwary traveller. The Americans cling particularly to 
these opinions ; and, strange to say, the Mexicans have 
an equally bad opinion of the Americans. Often Mexi- 
cans have said to us, " We knew at once you were not 
Americans ; we love the English." This dislike of the 
Mexicans to the Americans no doubt is caused mostly 
by the war, and partly also by the objectionable Ameri- 
cans who, having made their own country too hot to 
hold them, take refuge in Mexico, much as the English 
used to take refuge at Boulogne. 

I have travelled a good deal in Europe, but I never 
met so pleasant a people as the Mexicans. Not only 
are they courteous to strangers, but to each other. 
Their politeness is Castilian, and their kindness quite 
Yorkshire. The merry fellow in rags that would dis- 
grace a scarecrow, pulls off his hat to greet his lady friend 
whose chemise, petticoat, and reboso are not worth six- 
pence altogether. They have no awkward feeling of 
inferiority because you are richer than they, nor are they 
the least presumptuous. In short, they are thorough- 
bred, if such a term means anything. They have only 
one fault, they are dirty, which is not surprising, as 
water is so scarce that it is difficult often to get enough 
to drink. At one station on the line the women were 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 157 

actually waiting with large jugs to get water from the 
tender of the locomotive, it was so difficult to procure in 
the neighbourhood. 

Sunday, November \%tJi. — We rose early, and having 
found our friend of the night before, made him under- 
stand that we wanted breakfast, so he took us through 
another court and into the dining-room, and gave us a 
very good breakfast. The coffee came in a tea-pot and 
the milk in a watering-can, and we drank it out of 
tumblers, and the waiter talked Spanish to us, which 
we did not understand, and we talked English to him 
which he did not understand, so we were very merry 
and enjoyed our meal immensely. Then we found the 
landlord, a courtly old gentleman, who had served 
under Maximilian and knew some French. He got a 
carriage for us and told the driver where to take us. 
It was a closed carriage, so we both perched on the seat 
by the driver, who was much amused and chattered 
away in his own tongue, pointing out all the great 
churches, &c. We admired his sombrero, so he stuck 
it on my head to see if I looked well in it. 

First we went to the Cerro de las Campanas, or Hill 
of the Bells, where Maximilian and the two Mexican 
Generals, Mejia and Miramon were shot. Three small 
stone columns mark the spot ; railings and brass 
plates have disappeared. Maximilian is generally 
regarded as rather an interesting person in England, 
but in Mexico they knew him too well, his cruelty, his 
vanity, and his weakness. His history was simply this. 
Being over head and ears in debt, and having quarrelled 
with his brother, the Emperor of Austria, he accepted 



158 Five Afonths^ Fine Weather 

the throne of Mexico, knowing well that it was only 
offered him by a faction. He bargained that he must 
have a handsome sum of money down, 3,000,000 
dollars, with which he paid off the mortgages on his 
favourite residence, Miramar, and other pressing debts. 
Maximilian landed in Mexico on May 29th, 1864, and 
managed, by the help of the French army, under Bazaine, 
and the church, to keep up a kind of court in the city of 
Mexico ; but the nation would not accept him. Juarez, 
the great President, never ceased to exercise authority, 
although once driven by the French as far as Paso del 
Norte. On October 3rd, 1865, Maximilian signed the 
decree, that in future all prisoners taken in arms 
against him should be shot as traitors, although at the 
time two-thirds of the country were in arms against 
him. Under this law, which he and the Empress 
Charlotte signed in a little boudoir off the ball-room 
between two dances, men were shot in cold blood after 
the engagements, sometimes twenty or thirty, sometimes 
hundreds at a time. When the American Civil War 
was ended, the United States put pressure on Napoleon 
to remove his troops, which he did willingly, seeing 
what a hopeless, never-ending contest it was. 

After Bazaine's departure Maximilian took refuge in 
Queretaro, which, after a siege, was given up to the 
national army, and he was made prisoner and executed 
on June 19th, 1867. 

It is said that JUarez would gladly have spared him, 
but the widows and orphans of the poor fellows murdered 
in obedience to that terrible Law of October 3rd, com- 



til Canada, JVestn'ii U.S., and Mexico. 159 

pelled the President to do justice. Since then the 
Republic has been firmly established, and the country- 
has progressed rapidly. The present ruler, Porfirio 
Diaz^ was one of Juarez' generals. His brilliant 
military exploits did much to dishearten the French, 
so Bazaine tried to induce him to betray the great 
President, and become ruler himself, but Diaz was not 
that kind of man. 

The view from the Cerro over Oueretaro and the 
neighbourhood is very lovely. The brilliant colouring 
of sky, verdure, white buildings, and tile-covered domes 
of churches, all shining in the delicious sunshine, the 
large haciendas or country-houses outside the town, and 
the lovely hills which surround it, made a glorious 
picture. A more unlikely place to stand a siege could 
not well be found, as the hills command it on all sides. 
From the Cerro we drove back to the town and through 
the picturesque streets, past Santa Clara, Santa Rosa 
and other fine churches, to the cathedral where a great 
service was going on, so we could not walk about. I 
went to the front and knelt among the worshippers, and 
received the blessing, and was asperged with holy water 
from the altar, but Edward was too severely Protestant 
for that, so he did not see the inside of the cathedral. 
Then we visited the Town Hall and saw the coffin in 
which Maximilian was first placed, and the stools with 
handsome satin cushions, but no backs, on which Mejia 
and Miramon sat at their trial. There was a portrait 
of Maximilian, a poor weak silly face. The Town 
Hall was a very nice building with large rooms. The 



i6o Five Months Fine Weather 

driver pointed out to us the windows of the room the 
Emperor occupied during the siege, and also the 
windows of the room in which he was afterwards im- 
prisoned in a convent. We visited another church in 
which were some curious wooden images, and then, as 
the driver seemed to think we had seen everything, we 
went back to the hotel and hunted up the landlord to 
ask him where we could buy opals. There are plenty of 
people about who come up to strangers and offer opals 
for sale, but they are poor things, just like cornelians. 

The Mexican opal is not like the stone we call opal. 
There are some very like it, but they are not good. 
The best are red stones, transparent, with green fire, 
which when good are beautiful, but we never found a 
good one on sale. We saw two or three very fine ones 
worn by the owners. Then there are some that look 
like drops of water when held in the hand, and show 
all the prismatic colours, but these are too delicate to 
use. The colours would not show at any distance. 
There are yellow ones, which look like cairngorms, 
until the light catches them, and then they too show 
all colours. We were directed to a dealer in a back 
room, upstairs, in an ordinary house, nothing to show 
a dealer lived there. He had nothing really good, but 
we bought three at five dollars each {\^s.\ the Mexican 
dollar is worth only 3^". We then returned to the 
market-place, which was full of people, as Sunday is 
their market-day. There were fruit, rough but very 
pretty pottery, vegetables, meat, and other useful things 
on sale ; but what astonished us was the quantity of 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. i6i 

toys, tiny jugs and crockery, little wooden things, tiny 
baskets of all shapes, the. sweetest little things, which 
we were delighted to buy for a few pence, but what 
could the natives do with them ? — and we were certainly 
the only strangers in Queretaro. I saw many people 
in the poorest attire buy these things. It was new to 
us then, but we soon found that in Mexico, " II n'y a de 
necessaire que le superflu." 

The natives never think of wasting money on clothes, 
anything does for clothes, an old sack is not at all an 
uncommon garment, but they buy ices, toys and 
cakes freely. It is the climate that does it, the de- 
licious sunshine that is itself food and clothes, and 
makes mere existence a pleasure. There was fruit on 
the stalls that we never saw or heard of before, and as 
the good folks saw we did not understand the language, 
they ate them to show how good they were. It was 
great fun going round amongst them, they were all so 
merry, and jolly and friendly. Wherever we went a 
lad followed, trying to sell us a paper of small opals — we 
had bought one from him still embedded in a bit of 
rock. I was so lucky as to pick up a very old Spanish 
coin in good condition. It had been used as a hat 
decoration, and the owner wanted to change it for a 
modern quarter-dollar. He was offering it to a stall- 
keeper, who did not like the look of it, so I stepped in 
and made the exchange. I found I had really cheated 
the poor fellow, as the landlord told me it was a c ood 
old coin, and he would be glad to give me a dollar and 
a half for it. 

M 



i62 Five Months'' Fine Weather 

We were very sorry to leave the market-place, but 
our train started at 11.35 a.m., so we went back to the 
hotel, and paid our very modest bill, and thanked the 
worthy landlord for his kindness. The lad with the 
opals was still with us, so the landlord bargained with 
him, and we bought them for about a third of what he 
first asked. Then we went to the station, where there 
was the funniest lot of people waiting to see the train 
come in. If it were not for the Atlantic Ocean we 
would certainly spend all our winters at Queretaro. 

There was no Pulman car on the train, but the first 
class was very comfortable, with only a few gentlemen 
on board. On leaving Queretaro the train passes under 
one of the arches of the immense aqueduct, which is 
two miles long. The water is brought altogether five 
miles to supply the city. The first station is for the 
Hercules Cotton-Mills, a most important factory, and 
worthy of a visit. There are now many cotton-mills in 
Mexico which are very prosperous. The Indians (as 
the natives are always called, though they are not in 
the least like the Red Indians of North America) make 
very good workpeople, so long as their wages are paid 
regularly. If the wages are not forthcoming on the 
proper day, they are frightened at once, remembering 
how it was in the old unsettled times before the Re- 
public was firmly established. The scenery was ex- 
ceedingly pretty, and at every station there was an 
amusing crowd of merry picturesque people selling 
fruitj &c., or just begging. We got a capital dinner ajt 
San Juan del Rio. We just got a glimpse of a large 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico, 163 

church at Tula, but could not see anything of the Aztec 
remains, and unfortunately we never returned as we 
intended, to see this interesting old place. Daylight 
just lasted long enough for us to see the wonderful Tajo 
de Nochistongo, an immense ditch, commenced in 1607 
to open a vvay through the mountains for the super- 
fluous waters of the great Mexican table-land, which 
have no natural outlet. At first a tunnel was made, 
but that was perpetually coming to grief in one way or 
another, so it was finally decided to make this immense 
cut, which was completed in 1789. The greatest width 
is 630 feet, and its greatest depth 196 feet, and its length 
67,537 feet. The railroad runs along the side of it, 
about fifty feet above the stream. 

This great work did a good deal to drain the country, 
but there are still floods every year, and new works on 
a very large scale are being carried out at present. 
After passing through the Tajo we had a very fine 
sunset, and then a large round moon came out, but did 
not give much light, so we saw no more until we reached 
the city of Mexico at 7 p.m. Having been told that 
the Mexicans were great thieves, we were astonished to 
find that it is usual to hand over one^s ke\s to a bag- 
gage collector, who passes the boxes through the 
Custom's-house and brings them on to the hotel. We 
had put a bag of money in a trunk, but nothing was 
missing. A bag of money sounds like great wealth, 
but it takes very few dollars to fill a bag, and even in 
the States one meets with little gold, some notes, but 
principally silver. In England one goes out shopping 

M 2 



164 Five Months' Fine Weather 

with money in one's pocket, and brings home one's 
purchases in a cart, but in the States one goes out with 
one's money in a cart, and returns with the purchases in 
one's pocket — thanks to the heavy coinage and the high 
prices of everything. 

We went to the Hotel Yturbide, where we got a large 
room looking into a bit of garden with a tank of stag- 
nant water. We had to go through this little garden 
on our way to the Cafe Anglais for dinner, as the 
restaurant in the hotel was closed. In the dim light we 
saw large creeping things going about in numbers. We 
picked our way through them carefully, but a Spanish 
lady passing, laughed at my precaution, and deliberately 
put her tiny foot on a horrible creature. We saw after- 
wards by daylight they were immense cockroaches about 
three inches long and two inches across, flat and black, 
with either claws or horns like stag-beetles. 

Monday, November igih. — We changed our hotel and 
got very good accommodation at the new Hotel Jardin, 
which has a restaurant on the premises. The hotel and 
the restaurant are generally separate businesses. The 
food was not very good, but then it was very cheap. 
Coffee and bread excellent, and plenty of milk. We 
paid a dollar each per day for breakfast, lunch, and 
dinner ; and three and a half dollars for our apartment, 
which consisted of a small sitting-room and a large bed- 
room (with two beds) out of it. The hotel is an old 
monastery, overlooking a large garden. The Hotel 
Yturbide is a magnificent building, erected in the last 
century as a private residence, and used as a palace by 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 165 

the unfortunate Yturbide during his reign of a year. 
Yturbide was called the Liberator, because it was 
under his leadership that the long struggle of the 
Mexicans against the Spanish Viceroys was finally suc- 
cessful. His immense popularity turned his head, and 
he made himself emperor ; but the people have a rooted 
objection to emperors, so they sent him into exile with 
a very handsome pension. After a short time he allowed 
himself to be persuaded to try to regain his throne, 
landed at Vera Cruz in 1824, was taken prisoner at 
once, and shot. Since 1855 the palace has been an 
hotel. We were told of several good restaurants in 
Mexico ; but we were generally tired and glad to dine 
quietly at home. There was always something we 
could eat, and we could get poached eggs if we were not 
satisfied. We probably could have made arrangements 
with the restaurant-keeper to have fed us better if we 
had stayed any time. 

The Mexican onyx, of which we think so much in 
England, must be very cheap, for I noticed both in the 

hotel, otherwise very simply furnished, and elsewhere 

> 
that it is used as commonly as marble with us. 

The post-office is well managed. Every day a list is 

fastened up on the wall of letters poste restante, and of 

those insufficiently addressed. After examining the list 

one goes to the clerk and asks for one's letters, giving 

the day they arrived. Travellers must take note of a 

regulation which lost us many letters. After a month 

all unclaimed letters are opened and returned to the 

senders. 



1 66 Five Month's Fine Weather 

We had a delightful day loafing about the streets, 
which are full of handsome shops and wonderful old 
churches. The cathedral is worthy of the country. It 
is finely situated on the principal square, the Plaza 
Mayor, a very large open space with a garden called the 
Zocalo in the centre, and a band-stand where military 
bands play daily. The cathedral was commenced in 
1573 ; it was the third church erected on this site, 
formerly occupied by the great Aztec Temple. It has 
two towers, from which there is a magnificent view of 
the whole table-land of Mexico. We loved the cathe- 
dral. Whenever we had half an hour to spare during 
our stay in Mexico we always made for the Plaza Mayor 
to look at it again, and every time it seemed to be more 
beautiful. 

Tuesday, November 20th. — We went to the cathedral 
and visited the interior, which is very grand. The main 
altar is gaudy ; but behind it, in the east end, is the 
glorious altar De los Reyes, all carved woodwork, gilt, 
and decorated with coloured statues and pictures, in a 
style named after its inventor, the Spanish architect 
Churrigverra, who flourished about 1690. Many of the 
side-chapels are richly adorned. The choir is very 
grand. Railings of tumbago, a mixture of gold, silver 
and copper, of enormous value, surround the choir, and 
make a pathway to the high altar. As we were peering 
through the doorway at the beautiful carved work of the 
stalls, a charming old ecclesiastic, evidently of authority, 
saw us and beckoned to us to come in. We tried very 
hard to have some conversation, but we could not get 



171 Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 167 

on well^ though Spanish is an easy language, very like 
Italian, He asked us if we had cathedrals in England, 
and if we were Catholics, and he pointed out the beauties 
of the cathedral, of which he was evidently very proud, 
and had the old choir-books opened to show us the 
splendid illuminated letters and quaint pictures. On 
leaving he shook hands with us most kindly, and I 
dropped the best court curtsey I could manage, which I 
found afterwards was quite the correct thing for me 
to do. 

Mexicans shake hands a good deal. I have seen a 
servant after bringing his master's luggage to the train, 
and taking his last orders, shake hands most cordially 
with him. He was a soldier servant, too, and his master 
an officer. 

People who came to our assistance when we were 
unable to make ourselves understood always shook 
hands with us. The upper class mostly know French, 
and often strangers would stop and ask if they could 
help us when they saw we were in difficulties. 

It is very amusing walking about Mexico, people 
offer you lottery tickets every minute, and there are 
delightful little stalls in the streets selling the oddest 
collection of odds and ends, from amongst which you 
sometimes can pick up an interesting old coin, or an 
old painting on copper. Sunday is the great day for 
these street-sellers, many of whom just spread their 
wares on the pavement. We often wondered who 
bought the glass stoppers without bottles, the fragments 
of brass and iron, umbrella tops, and similar valuables. 



1 68 Five Months' Fine Weathei^ 

We found a nice old ivory figure in a little shop, 
amongst a lot of things of which not one was worth 
sixpence. I know well, for I looked into every hole and 
corner hoping to find another bit of ivory. I never 
found a good old Spanish fan, though I sought diligently 
for one. If I found an old fan it was not good — if good 
it was not old. 

Doors and windows are generally open, and one can 
look in and see the dressmakers and tailors and cobblers 
at work, and the women making tortillas, the national 
dish. The tortilla-maker has a sloping slab of granite 
on four legs and a granite rolling-pin. She takes maize 
and crushes it without any preliminary grinding, mixing 
it with water until it becomes a soft paste. This is very 
hard work. Then she takes up a little bit, flattens it 
between her hands and pats it until it is quite thin like 
a pancake, and then it is cooked and eaten hot. Every- 
body seems happy and jolly, chattering like magpies, 
and delighted to see strangers. We sat in our window 
a long time watching a cabman and his wife have their 
dinner. She had brought it in a basket, and evidently 
she thought well of it and pressed him to eat, and when 
the husband had eaten as much as he wished of each 
dish she finished it. There were several courses, and 
they chattered the whole time. 

Next day we again wandered about the city and 
visited the Academy, where there are some very fine 
old pictures, and just looked into the Museum, where 
the wonderful Aztec calendar stone, stone of sacrifice, 
&c., are kept, Mexico must have been very rich and 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 169 

magnificent in the old Spanish times. There are num- 
bers of magnificent houses built round courtyards and 
decorated with fountains, statues, tiles and carvings. 
One house, built by the son or grandson of Cortez and 
La Marina, is entirely covered outside with tiles. The 
effect is curious and very handsome. The National 
Bank, the Mexican Railway Ofiices, and many other 
places of business occupy fine old houses formerly 
belonging to great Spanish families. The inner court- 
yard is still the favourite plan for a Mexican house, no 
doubt it is cool and pleasant in summer. The carriage 
is kept in it under the balcony which leads to the upper 
rooms, and sometimes the horses are groomed there. 
Plants stand about, and bird-cages, and sometimes a 
big dog. 

There are almost as many churches as houses. It is 
said that some time ago the church owned two-thirds of 
all the wealth and land in the country, but as on several 
occasions they opposed the Republican Government 
and were found to be conspiring to overturn it, laws 
were passed depriving them of the power to own land 
at all, and abolishing convents and monasteries, and 
confiscating all their property, and forbidding the clergy 
to appear in the streets in distinctive dress. As the 
Mexicans are very devout Catholics it was thought the 
church would win the day, but the people stuck by the 
Government. Great streets were made right through 
the old ecclesiastical buildings, and when the priests 
excommunicated the workpeople who demolished them, 
they protected themselves by sewing relics and pictures 



1 70 Five Months Fine Weather 

of saints on to their garments and went on merrily. 
Often one sees a church turned into a warehouse or a 
railway station. What seems to me a great pity is that 
the oldest Catholic Church in Mexico, San Francisco, in 
which Cortez often heard mass, has been cut up into 
two Protestant places of worship, and part of the old 
church pulled down. San Domingo has escaped and is 
very large and handsome, the altars richly carved and 
gilded up to the roof, with coloured cherubs and faces 
introduced — the Churriguerresque style again. Santa 
Theresa is half destroyed. We never passed a church 
without looking in, there is generally something worth 
seeing, and often interesting services were going on with 
pleasant music. 

Friday, November 22,rd. — We started early to see the 
Monte de Piedad, which is on the Plaza Mayor. This 
is a national institution, founded by the Condede Regla 
in 1775 to enable the poor to obtain loans on pledges at 
almost nominal rates of interest, and so keep them out 
of the hands of the usurers. At one time it was so 
highly thought of that family jewels and plate were 
deposited in the vaults, just for safe keeping during the 
troubled times, but President Gonzales having seized 
the funds and, some say, part of the property placed 
there, its credit was gone. It is now recovering from 
the blow, but there is nothing of any consequence in the 
vaults, as they are called, though they are upstairs 
rooms. Pledges remain unsold a year, then if interest 
is not paid on the loan, they are brought out, valued 
by specialists and put up to auction. If the price is not 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 171 

reached they remain a month exposed for sale in the 
large room on the ground floor, then the price is reduced 
and they are again put up to auction. This goes on 
until they are sold. Things go very cheap, but I never 
saw anything of real value sold there. We picked up a 
few little things cheap, but now there are so many 
dealers looking out for jewels, and so many English and 
American residents ready to buy curios, that things do 
not remain long unsold if 'they are really interesting. 
There are numbers of private pawnbrokers as well, who 
sometimes have very nice things to sell. We were told 
that the Mexicans have no prejudice against pawning 
their things. If a young lady wants a new ball dress 
she will pawn a necklace to get money for it. We 
never passed a pawnbroker without going to see what he 
had. Luckily for us they had not found out the value 
of old things, so we generally got \\hat we wanted very 
cheap. 

The flower-market is close to the Cathedral, and is full 
every morning of lovely bouquets, baskets, and devices 
in flowers at very low prices. On the other side of the 
Cathedral is the book-market ; there we saw nothing 
remarkable, but probably that was owing to our igno- 
rance. There were plenty of old books, but not illumi- 
nated or illustrated. 

From the markets we went to the museum, and went 
through all the rooms. There are some wonderful- 
pictures showing the progress of Cortez from the coast, 
said to be the very pictures sent to Montezuma at the 
time. There is Montezuma's feather-decorated shield, 



172 Fiv2 Months' Fine Weather 

and ancient Aztec earthenware without end, some of it 
very elegant^both in form and decoration. The greatest 
treasure is a small obsidian vase or jug, wonderfully 
carved with the figure of a man, whose arms form the 
handles. There were some of the masks of different 
materials which puzzle antiquaries so much. They can 
never have been either useful or ornamental, and as the 
Spanish conquerors utterly destroyed every Aztec book 
and record, there is no means of finding out their pur- 
pose. In the gallery on the ground floor of the museum 
the Government has collected all the principal statues 
of the gods and great carvings, for fear they should be 
exported on the sly. Luggage leaving the country is 
always examined to prevent passengers taking any an- 
tiquities. The statues of the gods are all hideous ; the 
most celebrated, the idol Huitzilopochtli, is evidently 
only a collection of attributes. 

Teoyainiqui, the goddess of Death, and Chac-Mool, 
the god of Fire, are human figures. All the names are 
guess-work, and antiquarians differ among themselves 
about them. There is not a single beautiful figure ; all 
are curious and many grotesque, but the decorative 
work is very fine. The feathered serpent, supposed to 
represent the god Quetzalcoatl, is really fine. This god, 
it is said, was believed by the Aztecs to have descended 
from heaven to live among them and teach them agri- 
culture and many useful arts. After a time he left them 
and went into the mountains, bidding them keep alight 
the sacred fire until his return to reign over them, 
when he would come from the east on white wings. 



in Canada, Westej'-n U.S., and Mexico. 173 

Tradition described him as of a fairer complexion than 
the Aztecs, so when Cortez arrived from the east, a fair 
man compared to them, they took the white sails of his 
ships for the white wings, and many refused to fight 
against him, believing him to be Ouetzalcoatl. 

The Stone of the Sun, or Calendar Stone, is covered 
with beautiful carving, said to be hieroglyphics, very 
Egyptian in style. The Sacrificial Stone is decorated 
round the circumference, but the top is almost plain, 
with a hollow in the centre and a channel from it to the 
edge. This is said to have been for the blood of the 
human sacrifices ; but if the thousands of victims we 
read of were really slain on this stone, is it not strange 
that there should not be the slightest stain on it ? 

As we wanted to finish all the " sights," we went on 
to the National Palace on the Plaza Mayor, where 
there is nothing of note except the picture of the " Cinco 
de Mayo," the battle on the 5th May, 1862, when the 
Mexicans, under General Zaragoza, obtained their first 
success over the French, so it has been ever since a 
great day with them. We were stopped by the guardian 
and shown into a handsome apartment until the gover- 
nor's permission could be obtained, and after waiting 
some time an elegant little officer appeared, and deeply 
regretted that owing to the governor's absence we could 
not visit the palace. Wc explained that all we wanted 
was to see the picture. Not even that could be aHowed, 
so we departed ; but as we went towards the staircase, 
we saw an open door and we walked through it and 
found ourselves in the Hall of the Ambassadors, with 



1 74 Five Months' Fine Weather 

the throne and the famous picture. We did not admire 
it very much after all. Then we went back to the 
Cathedral to visit the tiny Chapel de las Animas, 
which is embedded in the Cathedral. No one knows 
its origin, but it has been there for over 200 years. 

We wanted to see the mint, and as La Mineria seemed 
a very likely translation, we walked to it, but found that 
was the School of Mines. The secretary kindly sent a 
man to show us round. He took us into the geological, 
astronomical, and mechanical rooms, and to the top of 
the building for the view. All Mexican roofs are flat. 
Then he took us to the library, which is in a fine old 
chapel. The altar had not been removed, but was used 
as a table, although the sacred pictures were still there. 
A young gentleman was busy with the plans for draining ■ 
Mexico, which is always flooded after rain, being only 
very slightly higher than the Lake Texcoco. The 
streets were full of water^ and many drains burst after a 
moderate rainfall during our visit ; but in the rainy 
season, August, September, and October, the water in 
the streets is often two feet deep, and men make money 
by carrying people across them on their backs. 

The young engineer kindly showed us the plans and 
explained them in French. There is to be a long canal 
going through the three lakes, and then a tunnel, con- 
veying the water through the hills to the north of the 
city. Once through, the water is to be allowed to find 
its own way to the sea. Some people think that if all 
the water is drained away it will interfere with the foun- 
dations of the city and bringdown some of the buildings. 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 175 

Afler seeing so mucli, and as it was two o'clock, we felt 
we deserved our lunch, so we went back to the hotel and 
asked Johnny, the interpreter, to get us a carriage for 
the afternoon. Johnny is an amusing little fellow, a 
Mexican, who was brought up in the American Embassy, 
and speaks English. He got us a nice little victoria, one 
dollar per hour. 

First we came to the Alameda, a pleasant^ shady 
garden, where people walk on Sundays. At the back of 
it is the Plaza de Morelos, with a statue to the priest- 
hero in the centre, and a lovely old church on each side. 
Then we went to the Panteone San Fernano, the 
cemetery where Juarez is buried. His tomb is a beau- 
tiful white marble monument by the brothers Islas, 
Mexicans. It represents Juarez lying dead, supported 
by a female figure of Mexico, over life-size. It is one 
of the finest statues we have ever seen. Guerrero, 
Zaragozo, whose monument bears the inscription Cinco 
de Mayo, and many of the heroes of the last war, are 
buried here, and I was surprised to see Mejia's tomb 
amongst them. Shot as a traitor, he is buried among 
the very men against whom he fought. The cemetery 
is very ugly and crowded, part of it under water, and 
the common folk buried on shelves, as in Italian 
cemeteries. 

We drove to Atzcapotzalco, passing on the way two 
beautiful bits of architecture. The Casa de los Mas- 
carones, or house of the masks, so called because there 
are faces amongst the elaborate ornamentation. It is 
occupied by some poor people who would not let us look 



1 76 Five Months Fine Weather 

inside. I fancy it was a girls' school. The beautiful 
fa9ade is quite neglected, even grass growing in the 
cracks. The other was the fountain of the Fiddling 
Kings, also very elaborate. There used to be an 
immense aqueduct here, now half pulled down, taking 
water to Mexico, and this fountain evidently supplied 
the little village. No one knows who the Fiddling 
Kings were intended to represent, or anything about it. 
We drove past the village of Popotla, with a pretty old 
church, San Esteban, unfortunately with locked doors, 
and close to it the immense old trunk of the Arbol de 
la Noche Triste, the tree under which Cortez sat and 
wept after he had been driven out of Mexico, July ist, 
1520. The tree is still alive. The tears of Cortez must 
have preserved it, for there does not appear to be 
another old tree in the neighbourhood. At the next 
village, Tacuba, there was another fine old church, also 
locked up, and a large churchyard surrounded by a 
handsome wall of inverted arches, which is a common 
style in Mexico. At last we reached Atzcapotzalco, 
where, too, the large church was locked up. The wall 
of inverted arches surrounding this churchyard had a 
cow's horn inserted in each division, as if for a peg to 
fasten things to, and on each pinnacle where the arches 
met there was a statue or vase. The drive was very 
pleasant all the way, though the cottages we passed were, 
many of them, very poor and dirty, and the road was all 
holes and dust. There was a tram-line, the cars drawn 
by little mules that went very fast. We had to return 
the way we came. 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. ilJ 

Saturday, November 24///. — There had been heavy rain 
in the night, so that the streets were wet and dirty. We 
went to the Mercado (market) San Juan, where there 
was nothing interesting, but some way past it we found 
the lovely Salto del Agua, a fountain formerly the end 
of the Chapultepec Aqueduct. We wandered through 
some evil-smelling streets, and found the Collegio de 
San Ignacio, a beautiful building coloured pink, a 
favourite fashion here, and very pleasing. Even the 
Sagrario, which forms part of the Cathedral, is coloured 
pink. 

On our return to the hotel we had a visit from a 
charming old Spanish gentleman, Seiior de Garay, who 
talked to us for one and a half hours, telling us about 
Hidalgo, Morelos, and Juarez, for whom he has the 
greatest veneration. Seizor de Garay has great faith in 
the future of Mexico and in the stability of the Republic. 
He told us that he had seen curious changes in nature 
take place here. The year of the cholera in Europe, 
the swallows that used to come in great numbers did not 
come at all, and every one said it was a sign of the 
approaching cholera. The cholera did not come, but 
the mosquitoes did, and although the swallows have 
reappeared lately (but not in large numbers), the 
mosquitoes have remained, and are very troublesome. 
There used to be swarms of rooks in the neighbourhood, 
but these have been killed off by the French and other 
foreign residents for sport, and they too have made an 
end of the hares which used to be very numerous. 
Mexicans will not eat hares, believing them to feed 

N 



178 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

upon corpses. Three years ago, when the electric h'ght 
was introduced, the enormous cockroaches made their 
appearance, and although the electric light has only 
existed three months in Morelia, the cockroaches are 
appearing there too. They had never been seen before 
anywhere. A pretty bird, very like a sparrow with a 
red breast, a sweet songster, now common, is a recent 
arrival in Mexico. He said several trees and plants 
grow now freely which were formerly unknown. The 
best way to make money, he thought, was to buy large 
haciendas, and cut them up into small farms, and sell to 
the tenants, or to the people from the neighbouring 
towns and villages, who will pay handsomely, as all have 
money saved, and there is a great desire among them to 
own land. Large haciendas, if away from the railways^ 
can be bought very cheap. 

Sunday, November 2$th. — In the afternoon we went to 
the bull-fight, to see the Spanish company. It was 8 
wretched affair. There were three fights going on that 
afternoon, so the seats were mostly empty. The bulls 
would not fight, and the men dare not go near them. 
If the bull turned his head there was a general scamper. 
At first there was some pretty work with the horses, 
who were not blinded, and were very plucky. The men 
kept the bull off and saved their horses for a time, but 
afterwards they just put them on to the bull to be 
gored. All the pretty play with the coloured cloaks 
was beyond the power of these cowardly fellows, and as 
for the poor bulls, all they asked was to live in peace, 
and go home to their wives and families. With much 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 179 

trouble, the first bull was made to understand that he 
was not among friends, but still he did not want to hurt 
anybody, so the matador, just arrived from Spain, ap- 
proached to kill him. A disgusting butchery followed. 
The matador was so nervous that he dare not go near 
the bull ; but at last he made an effort, and stuck his 
sword into the poor beast at random, right through his 
back under the bone. Then he got another sword and 
tried again. This time the poor thing fell, but it got up 
again, and walked about two or three minutes. Of 
course a clever matador kills the bull in a second. The 
second bull utterly declined to fight, so he was lassoed 
and taken out. The lassoing was very pretty. Two 
men came into the ring on horseback and cantered 
round. Then one of them threw his lasso over the bull's 
head and one fore foot ; as he kicked, the other man 
threw his lasso over the hind legs, and threw him. After 
a couple of minutes the man holding his head jerked him 
to make him get up, while the other man slackened his 
lasso, and they trotted him out. It was such a wretched 
show we went away ; there was not a bit of skill or 
pluck in the whole exhibition. We found some Ameri- 
cans also departing, and walked home together. They 
had been in Yucatan, and had seen the great ruins, and 
had been much pleased. The American Consul there 
who is continuing the excavations, had been very kind 
to them. 

Monday, November 26th. — I dreamt I was at a pig- 
fight, and, as the sounds continued when I woke, I 
rushed to the window, and saw three men struggling 

N 2 



I So Five Months' Fine Weather 

with a great fat pig. They had three fat fellows in a 
cart and three running about the road. The men seized 
one very fat pig, and staggered under its weight to the 
cart, into which they hoisted it after great efforts, piggy 
scolding vociferously all the time. It was better fun 
than the bull -fight. 

After doing a little shopping at Gorilla's, the best 
silversmith, and at the Monte de Piedad, we visited a 
lovely church called La Profesa, where we found some 
good paintings and some wonderful silver-work reli- 
quaries framed like pictures. We visited the Mint, and, 
notwithstanding our ignorance of Spanish and theirs of 
anything else, they understood that we wanted to see 
the works, and so they showed us round most politely. 

The Mexican silver dollar is a very pretty coin. On 
one side is the Cap of Liberty in a glory, and on the 
other side the national crest, an eagle sitting on a nopal 
or cactus, eating a snake, just as the Aztecs saw it when, 
on their descent from the north, it was a sign to them 
that that was the right place for them to settle and build 
their city. 

We found great inconvenience resulting from the re- 
cent change in the coinage to the decimal system. The 
old real, worth \2\ centavos, is still the popular unit of 
value, and now there is no coin answering to it. Half 
a real is called a medio, but the new five and ten cent 
pieces have no individual names. In the country dis- 
tricts the people look very suspiciously at the new coins. 

We walked from the Mint to the Plaza de la Con- 
cordia, and into the pretty little church El Carmen, 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. i8i 

where some ceremony was going on. As we turned from 
the church door we caught sight for the first time of the 
glorious snow mountains Popocatepetl and Tztaccihuatl, 
both extinct volcanoes. We made off to the Cathedral 
at once, and up the tower to get the full view. It 
was glorious. All the city, the lakes, the plains, the 
Shrine of Guadalupe, and the great circle of mountains, 
all fine, though none equal to the two giants. Every- 
thing was clear and lovely. Mexico looks quite a small 
city, with an inordinate number of churches. Most of 
them have tiled domes, which look very bright in the 
sunshine. The straight Paseo de la Reforma, leading 
to Chapultepec, showed well, but the fortress palace was 
mostly hidden by the trees. The sunset threw a lovely 
pink glow on the snow mountains. Iztaccihuatl is 
called the "White Woman," because the snow-covered 
part is exactly the shape of a dead woman covered by 
a shroud. It was a glorious scene. 

Tuesday, November 2'jth. — We got up at 4.45 a.m. 
and got breakfast at the station, at a staU — very fair 
coffee, with milk and bread. The train left at 6.30 for 
Puebla. Our kind friends of the Mexican Railroad had 
given us a private carriage at the end of the train, and 
there we sat in comfort, and enjoyed the beautiful 
scenery. The morning was very cold, but it brightened 
into a glorious day. 

The Mexican Railroad leaves Mexico along the old 
causeway built in 1676 for the pilgrims to Guadalupe, with 
fifteen beautiful altars dedicated to the fifteen mysteries 
of the Rosary. About six or seven of these altars are still 



1 82 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

standing by the side of the railway. The Hne runs for 
some way by the shallow Lake Texcoco, passing Guada- 
lupe, of which we got a good 'view. Then through the 
great fertile plain of Apam, mostly planted with magveys, 
cultivated for the sake of the juice, which is made into 
pulque, the national drink. We tasted it once only. It 
looks like thin milk, tastes like something nasty fer- 
menting, and smells like yeast. It is said to be whole- 
some, and is rather intoxicating. The fibres of the 
plant are equal to hemp, and are used in many manu- 
factures — thread, matting, &c. The Aztec mounds at 
San Juan Teotihuacan can be seen from the train. 

At Apizaco we found a good lunch, and looking up 
from its consideration, saw a pleasant, genial, honest 
face that could only belong to an Englishman. It was 
Mr. Evans, the locomotive superintendent, who had 
been informed of our arrival and had come to greet us. 
It turned out he was an old Midland Railway man, so 
Edward and he soon found they had many mutual 
friends. He was married to an English lady, and had 
lived many years in the country very comfortably. He 
told us their servants had been with them over ten years. 
The Mexicans seem to make very good servants, kindly 
and attentive, and becoming attached to their employers 
like English servants. 

At Apizaco we left the main line for the Puebla 
branch, which runs through beautiful scenery. Popo- 
catepetl and Iztaccihuatl on the right, and the snow- 
covered Peak of Orizaba and the Malintzi on the left, 
while the countless beautiful churches^ large haciendas, 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 183 

and the rich vegetation make a magnificent foreground. 
Soon after leaving Apizaco we passed a very pretty 
waterfall, name unknown. The railroads are everywhere 
used by the natives as high roads. There are very few 
trains in the day, and the ordinary roads are very bad, 
so riders and foot-passengers take the railroad. When 
a train appears they have to get off the line as best they 
can. Sometimes they have great difficulty, and have to 
plunge into thickets or scramble into the ditches. Often 
they are overtaken and killed. Before we knew that 
accidents were of common occurrence we used to be 
very much amused by their difficulties ; but afterwards 
we felt rather nervous. Happily, we never witnessed 
anything of the kind, but it seems numbers are run over 
in the year. 

We arrived at Puebla at 11.45 a.m. and took the 
bus to the Hotel de las Diligencias ; very comfortable, 
with good food and pleasant servants. 

After lunch we made our way with much difficulty 
to the Cholula tramway and had an hour's shaky ride 
to Cholula, passing an old aqueduct in ruins and a 
picturesque bridge with a fine gateway at each end. 
The Pyramid of Cholula, once surmounted by a temple 
to Quetzalcoatl, is now crowned by the church of Nostra 
Senora de los Remedios. The tram-car stops to set 
down passengers at the foot of the mound, and then 
goes on to some distant village. The ascent is by an 
easy winding road, attributed by some to the Aztecs 
and by some to the Spaniards. What a glorious 
country Mexico would have been if the Spaniards had 



1 84 Five Months Fine Weather 

never come ! They knocked down and destroyed 
everything! The pyramid was once a dense mass of 
houses in terraces ; now it would be difficult to believe 
it was not a natural mound, except that pieces are 
broken away and show how it is built up, mostly of 
lava and concrete. As we strolled to the top a lad 
followed us with a handful of ancient Aztec earthenware 
heads, spindle whorls, beads, and obsidian arrow-heads 
found amongst the debris. We bought them at last for 
a small sum. I picked a number of bits of arrow-heads 
out of the cutting made for the tram line. The little 
heads are a great puzzle to antiquarians. They abound 
all round the old Aztec cities^ and no one knows what 
they were used for. They are all different, so perhaps 
it was their way of taking portraits. 

The view from the top of the pyramid is very fine. 
After enjoying it for some time we went down into 
Cholula and made for a large Gothic-looking church, 
which turned out to be San Francisco, built in the 
sixteenth century, and containing a wonderful flat arch 
— so flat, it is a marvel that it stands. It was under- 
going repairs, and so was the Capilla de los Naturales, 
an immense building erected in 1660 to accommodate 
the great number of Indians that flocked to the shrine. 
We were told by a Spanish gentleman that the district of 
Puebla contains no less than 200 churches ! We walked 
round the plaza and then back to the car, and were jolted 
to Puebla, but landed a long way from our hotel. 
Having utterly lost our way, we applied to a young 
gentleman who was passing, and he actually walked all 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 185 

the way to the door and then waved his hat and shook 
hands with us. Unfortunately he only spoke Spanish. 
It was a perpetual source of regret to us that we could 
not speak Castellana. Dictionaries are not always to 
be relied on, as that evening Edward, having looked up 
blankets, went to the landlord and asked for "blanquilla." 
Our host consented cheerfully, and sent at once for a 
couple of eggs ! 

Wednesday, November 28///. — We went to the Cathe- 
dral and spent all the morning admiring it and the 
wonderful decorations of the interior. The Cathedral is 
built of dark grey stone with white ornaments, and is 
large, dark, and impressive outside, but inside all is 
gorgeous. The high altar, completed in 1819, is very 
large, most of it being of Puebla marble or onyx richly 
carved and gilt, and adorned with life-sized coloured 
statues of bishops. Beneath the altar is the sepulchre 
of the Bishops of Puebla, said to be very beautiful, but 
we missed seeing it. The choir is a miracle of inlaid 
woods, and has old books splendidly illuminated. Every 
confessional is elaborately carved, and all the side 
altars rich with ivory figures, silver reliquaries, and fine 
pictures. It was curious to find amongst all these riches 
occasional places where, from some cause or other, they 
had fallen short, so that instead of marble there was the 
commonest painted wood, and abominable daubs within 
a few feet of priceless old masters. The sacristy was 
full of old tapestry and inlaid furniture. Service was 
going on all the morning, with very sweet music. 

After lunch we took a carriage and drove round the 



1 86 Five Months' Fine Weather 

city, which is full of fine old churches. It is said that 
there is a network of subterranean passages under the 
whole of Puebla, connecting the churches and monas- 
teries with each other. This is said of many places in 
Mexico, and that people do not like venturing into them 
to explore them, when they are discovered by a monas- 
tery or church being pulled down. Of course our driver 
took us first to see the new Casa de la Maternidad, a 
fine building of which they are very proudj and the 
Penitentiary, which was in the unhappy condition that 
the old was pulled down, and the n2w not yet built, but 
after that he took us to the church of San Francisco, a 
very large handsome building decorated inside and out 
with priceless old tiles as beautiful as gems ; some were 
quite pictures, one tile having on it a design of two 
birds and several flowers round them, the colouring 
remarkably brilliant. In this church is treasured an 
ugly doll with long hair, dressed doll fashion in rich 
satin and damask. It is the image of the Holy Virgin, 
presented by Cortez to his friend the Tlascallan chief. 
We stopped to look at the public laundry. There were 
two rows of washing-places, with a natural stream flow- 
ing between them, the whole roofed over. The women 
were chattering merrily over their work. We went 
through the market, where there was the usual display 
of pottery, fruit, vegetables, and baskets. Often in the 
markets we saw people selling scraps of cotton materials 
that had evidently been samples, and we wondered what 
use could be made of them. Afterwards we saw that 
they are used to patch clothes. We visited the pawn- 
brokers, but found nothing to suit us. 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 187 

Puebla is an exceedingly pretty town, the principal 
square, in which the Cathedral stands, has arcades on 
three sides with good shops, and altogether the city 
looks prosperous and comfortable. We met here 
a contractor for part of the Inter-oceanic Railroad, 
who told us he paid labourers thirty-seven centavos 
a day, and stone-masons seventy-five centavos, and 
generally had to give them something every night on 
account. 

Thursday, November 2gtk. — We retook possession of 
our comfortable carriage at eight o'clock, and started 
for Apizaco, and from there to Orizaba. It was as 
usual a delicious sunny morning, and all the big moun- 
tains were quite clear. We just caught a glimpse of the 
Pyramid of Cholula. At Apizaco we had a chat with 
an English railway official, who had spent nearly all his 
life in Mexico, and gave the natives an excellent 
character. We had a very pleasant run through a pros- 
perous-looking country to Esperanza, where a nice 
young Englishman, Mr. Hollis, road-master on this 
portion of the line, met us, and told us he had been 
commissioned by Mr. Shirley, the traffic-manager, to run 
us down the celebrated incline on a hand-trolly, so that 
we might see it better than we could from the train. 
Mr. Hollis had only recently come from England with 
his young wife, neither of whom could speak Spanish, 
He took us to see her in their little house by the station, 
a lonely life for her without a single person to speak 
to in her husband's absence. Our car went on ahead 
of the trolly, which is a delightful conveyance. We 
sat in front, and Mr. Hollis at the back, working 



1 88 Five Months' Fine Weather 

the break, and showing us the points of interest, and 
generally enjoying the rare pleasure of having Eng- 
lish people to talk to. We were sorry to say good-bye 
to him at the end of the day's journey. 

The incline begins at Boca del Monte where we got on 
to the trolly, and were soon tearing down the incline, 
slowing for the interesting bits, and often stopping 
altogether to admire the scenery and the engineering of 
the line, which are both wonderful and worthy of each 
other. The line is like a shelf on the mountain side, 
the gradient in some parts one in twenty, with many 
short tunnels and some giddy bridges, of which the 
most remarkable is called by the name of the engineer, 
" Winner's Bridge." It was a very curious feeling to 
stop on one of these bridges and look down on to the 
valley below, much like standing in a spider's web. 
From the line we looked straight down on to the roofs 
of Maltrata, in the lovely valley of La Joya, every field, 
road, and cottage marked as if on a map. About half- 
way down is a station called Alta Luz, Mr. Hollis 
told us that women, after offering their fruit and flowers 
for sale at Maltrata, will rush up a mountain path and 
be at Alta Luz as soon as the train, to offer their wares 
again. As we descended flowers became more plentiful. 
Unfortunately, I have never been able to remember the 
names of flowers, but I recognized many old hot-house 
friends. The gardenia grows freely and appears to be 
a great favourite. 

From Maltrata the line goes straight across the valley 
and then enters a lovely ravine with a stream rushing 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 189 

through it. The ravine is so narrow that for some 
distance the line runs on a bridge above the stream. 
This is the Barranca del Infiernillo, or ravine of the 
little hell. After that the descent to Orizaba is so slight 
that we had to get men to push the trolly. At Nogales 
we passed a large and prosperous cotton factory be- 
longing to Mr. Braneth, of the Mexican Railroad, and 
a marble quarry and works, belonging to two Americans 
called Brisbane, who are doing very well. When we 
arrived at the station we found the landlord of the 
Hotel de la Borda waiting for us. He is a German 
with an English wife, and his hotel is exceedingly com- 
fortable and clean, and the food excellent. As it was 
too late to do much we went to the Plaza, where there 
is a pretty garden, and to the market-place. 

The weekly market was just over and everybody 
packing up and going to church, so we went there too, 
and found a large crowd attending the evening service 
after the close of their busy day, before going home. 
They were very devout, and joined heartily in the 
responses. 

Friday, November 30//^. — We took a carriage and 
drove over the worst road we had seen, which is saying 
a great deal, to a wonderful waterfall. We passed 
through a large farm where we saw coffee, bananas, and 
many hot-house flowers growing almost wild. The 
oranges looked lovely in the sun. After driving some 
distance we left the carriage, and the driver guided us 
through fields to a point whence we looked down into 
the loveliest ravine. A stream ran down the centre 



1 90 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

between steep rocks, and just opposite us a second 
stream came leaping down the cliff in a series of falls 
of great height to join it ; one waterfall falling into 
another. Across the ravine were the beautiful moun- 
tains, and all round us trees and flowers, with butterflies 
and great buzzards flying about, and over all the intense 
blue sky and the sunshine which maketh glad the heart 
of man. We stayed there a long time, and our cheery 
driver danced round us, picking flowers and finding good 
places whence to see the falls, and generally doing 
everything he could think of to give us pleasure, as is 
the custom of this delightful people. We drove back 
to the hotel by another road passing the lovely old 
church of San Gertrudis on the way. 

We met Mr. Shirley close to the hotel, who said if 
we would wait another day he would take us down part 
of the way himself. Of course we accepted with joy. 
He walked through the town with us and kindly acted 
as interpreter. We found some nice old Spanish tor- 
toiseshell combs adorned with gold-work and pearls at 
a pawnbroker's, and a lovely old coral bead and fine gold- 
work rosary. These we bought very cheap, but I had 
the curiosity to ask the price of a modern European 
ring that had been left by some traveller, and I was 
amused to find the pawnbroker wanted much more than 
it would have cost new. In another pawnshop I 
bought some pearls ; the colour is good, but they are too 
badly shaped to be worth much. A great deal of 
coarse brown pottery is made in Orizaba, often very 
pretty, and I saw here two twisted glass bottles that a 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico, igi 

little more skill and better tools would have made 
" Venetian." Pottery is made everywhere, and is often 
very artistic, both in shape and decoration, but is rarely 
well enough baked to stand packing. 

This is the great coffee-growing district. A gentle- 
man at the hotel was buying quantities of it to ship to 
New Orleans. He told us that his broker had called 
his attention to a group of Indians who had brought 
into town eight asses laden with coffee which they sold 
for 1 60 dollars. The men were in rags. The broker 
said this money would be taken home and buried. An 
Indian never breaks into a dollar. He has no wants 
beyond what he supplies by his own and his family's 
labour, and the only purchase he makes is, at long 
intervals, a straw hat for a few coppers. This has been 
going on for generations, the secret of the deposit is 
handed down from father to son, and it is believed there 
are millions buried in the district. These Indians have 
a great objection to strangers coming amongst them. 
It is all very well for the day, but when night draws on 
they like the stranger to return home, as they are afraid 
he wants to discover their hidden treasures. In one 
Indian town the military have had to be called in twice, 
and use ver}^ severe measures, for the inhabitants mur- 
dered people who tried to settle among them. An 
American couple have started a little fruit and flower 
farm near Maltrata, but we were told they were sure 
to give it up shortly, so many accidents would happen 
to them. 

It is curious how the Indians clingf to the manners 



192 Five Months Fine Weather' 

and customs of their ancestors. Rich men will send 
their sons and daughters to be educated at the best 
establishments, but on their return they have to give up 
modern dress and \vays_, and wear the simple and not 
too burdensome native garb, and carry goods to market 
for sale. 

We spent the afternoon wandering about the town, 
which is exceedingly prettily situated at the foot of the 
mountains, with a river running through it, and a plea- 
sant alameda, or public garden, and pretty streets and 
lanes. Orizaba is the beginning of the hot country, so 
the vegetation is very luxuriant and beautiful. Mr. 
Shirley dined with us at the hotel, and told us a good 
deal about the natives, of whom he spoke very kindly. 
The Mexican Railroad pay higher wages than are usual 
because they like to keep their men. At Orizaba they 
pay 50 cents a day for a labourer, but down in the hot 
country they pay more, because it is difficult to work in 
the terrible heat. There is much swampy land on the 
low level, which is very unhealthy. The line near the 
coast is said to have cost a life for every sleeper. Out 
of 1400 foreign workmen, principally from New Orleans, 
only 250 went home again. This great mortality was 
mainly caused by the immoderate indulgence of the 
men in the native spirit, aguardiente, which is very 
cheap. 

Saturday, December ist. — Unfortunately our view from 
the trolly was spoilt by rain. Mr. Shirley took us as far 
as Fortin. About half-way we stopped and walked 
through a little tunnel by the side of the line into a 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 193 

beautiful glen. A large river falls about 100 feet, and 
then disappears underground, reappearing five miles 
off. It is a lovely spot, and can be reached no other 
way. Happily the rain cleared in time for us to see 
the Metlac bridge, which crosses a broad ravine, down 
which a stream flows, that, until last September, had 
never been known to be more than two or three feet 
high. It is a wrought-iron girder bridge carried on cast- 
iron columns substantially braced together (very like 
the Crumlin Viaduct in South Wales), and is built on a 
curve, radius 325 feet, the height is 95 feet. On the 
night of September 8th there was no rain at Metlac^ but 
a waterspout must have fallen up in the hills^ for 30 
feet of water came rushing down the ravine, tearing up 
big trees, and dashing them like catapults against the 
bridge. The flood broke down 150 feet of the bridge, 
leaving the rest uninjured. The traffic then crossed 
this piece on a temporary wooden trestle roadway, but 
a new iron bridge was on its way from England, and 
is probably in its place now. 

At Fortin Mr. Shirley presented us to Mr. Tomblin, 
who left England with his brother when agriculture was 
at its worst, and is doing well out in Mexico. They 
live with a charming Spanish gentleman, a bachelor, 
who owns an enormous coffee plantation, which they 
manage for him, and they all join in coffee buying and 
other speculations. It must be delightful for Senor 
Vivanco to have two bright young English fellows to 
live with him. Mr. Tomblin took us across a couple 
of fields to their house, and he and Senor Vivanco 

O 



194 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

received us with the greatest kindness. Luckily our 
host spoke English well and French like a Parisian. 
Mr. Tomblin showed us all the process of coffee-drying. 
When first picked it is put in the sun to dry. We saw 
quantities on the flat roof. Then it is put through 
machines which knock off the outer husk and the inner 
husk and skin. When the inner skin is completely 
removed the coffee is called " washed." The sorting is 
not a matter of quality, but of shape. The round 
berries fetch a rather higher price than the flat ones, 
because they roast better. Then it is packed in sacks. 
We were mounted on lovely little Mexican horses to 
visit the plantations where there are 350,000 coffee- 
trees, shaded by 3,000,000 bananas. The combination 
of the small, dark green foliage and the crimson berries 
of the coffee plant, with the large drooping leaves of 
the bananas is very pretty. Seiior Vivanco lent me his 
own dear little grey horse, but unfortunately he had no 
ladies' saddle, and the only thing to be found in the 
neighbourhood was an old child's saddle, with a tiny 
stirrup in the shape of a heart, and fastened on to the 
horse by one strap over a piece of carpet. I believe 
the horse was ashamed of both saddle and rider, for I 
had the greatest difficulty in keeping my perch; it 
could not be called a seat. The Mexican bridle is very 
easy to manage ; the bit is cruel in a heavy hand, but 
insures instant obedience. The horses are very fresh 
and spirited, and did not seem troubled by the bits. 

Mr. Tomblin said he would bring over some of the 
Mexican horses when he came to England and exhibit 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 195 

tnem. They descend from the Spanish barbs, and are 
beautifully formed, swift and active, with very easy 
paces, generally about fourteen hands high. We had a 
delightful ride, and on our return a delicious dinner, of 
which I will give the meim, as it was the only meal we 
got in the house of a Spaniard, though we got native 
dishes several times. 

Soup with some kind of paste in it. 

Omelette with a sauce of tomatoes and chillies. 

Filet de boeuf 

Small gourds cut in halves, filled with some mixture 
of vegetables. 

A Ragout. 

Baked puff fritters, very crisp and light, with chilli 
sauce. Rice cake and custard. Pine-apple sliced in 
sugar. Oranges sliced in claret. Fruit pastes of all 
kinds, made in moulds like jellies. French wine and 
mezcal with the coffee, a spirit or liqueur made from 
aloes, but not the same kind of aloes that are used for 
pulque. We brought some mezcal home with us, and 
also some fruit paste, which is made largely in Mexico. 
Coffee was curiously served. Cold extract of coffee, 
made every morning in sufficient quantity tor the day, 
was brought in a decanter, and a little poured into the 
cupSj and boiling water added. Several times during 
the meal tortillas were brought and placed by each 
person, some cold and crisp^ some hot, all very delicate 
and very nice. The common way of eating tortillas is 
to fold them up and use them as spoons, of course 
devouring them at the same time. They are named on 

o 2 



196 Five Months Fine Weather 

this account " Spoons of Montezuma," because when a 
Spaniard, boasting one day of his king's magnificence, 
gave as an example of it that he had a clean spoon with 
each course, the Mexican answered, " My king is still 
more magnificent, for he has a new spoon with every 
mouthful." Sefior Vivanco told me one servant was 
employed all day long making tortillas for his house- 
hold. She prepared the corn, and made it into dough 
every afternoon, for use the following day. 

The garden was very beautiful. There were roses, 
gardenias, large variegated-leaved plants grown at home 
•n stoves, tulip-trees, which are so common that they are 
even used for hedges, orange-trees and a wonderful con- 
volvulus with a beautiful flower, which when still a bud 
is exactly the shape and size of a duck. Senor Vivanco 
told me the natives were very pleasant people, and quite 
honest. He pointed out a man at the station who 
makes his living by selling bouquets. As this man 
lives at the station it is quite a common thing for people 
to leave large sums of money, which they wish to send 
off by train, in his care. 

Mr. Shirley joined us again at the station, and went 
on to Vera Cruz with us. We saw the beautiful falls 
of the Atoyac from the train, and then passed for miles 
through a dense jungle. The vegetation was marvellous, 
all shajDes, sizes and colours of trees, shrubs and grasses 
but very few flowers. It was not the right time of the 
year for them. In the old diligence days this part of 
the road was much dreaded, it was so unhealthy. 

Captain Powell, of the Mexican Railroad, met us at 



in Canada, Westei^n U.S., and Mexico. 197 

the station, and kindly walked with us to the Hotel Uni- 
versal, where we got a good clean room. The chamber- 
maid at this hotel did her work with a cigarette in her 
mouth, and an ugly dog following her. It was Very 
smelly down stairs. Captain Powell told us there had 
been no case of yellow fever in Vera Cruz for exactly 
two years. The old town walls had been pulled down, 
and since then it had been more healthy. A Norther 
was on all the time we were in the Tierra Caliente, or 
Hot Land, as the low-lying districts near the sea are 
called, so we did not get any great heat. We had 
heard such conflicting accounts of Vera Cruz that we 
hardly knew whether it was safe to visit or not. Many 
told us we must arrange to arrive in the morning, and 
leave in the evening, so that we should not spend a 
night there for fear of the " Vomito/' the yellow fever ; 
but we found that positively it is looked upon as a 
health-resort by Mexicans, who go there for sea breezes- 
Sunday, December 2nd. — Vera Cruz is a pretty little 
town with a Plaza Mayor^ where the band plays, 
and where cocoa-nut palms grow. These were the 
first we had seen. The shops and the market were not 
particularly interesting, but the harbour and landing- 
stage were most amusing. The famous island fortress 
San Juan d'Ulloa is very near the main land, and affords 
some protection for the ships, but if a storm comes on 
their only safety is in flight to the sea. The govern- 
ment have begun to construct a breakwater, but probably 
were short of money, so after letting down blocks of 
stone sufficient to prevent ships leaving the harbour that 



198 Five Months' Fine Weather 

way, they stopped the works. The great danger lies in 
the numerous reefs, visible in calm weather by the surf 
on them. There was a wreck lying to the south of the 
harbour, a French ship lost in the same storm that 
destroyed the Metlac bridge. The most amusing feature 
of Vera Cruz is certainly the zopilotes, or buzzards, 
who are the city scavengers, and swarm everywhere, 
walking about the streets and skurrying away on one 
leg, and with much wing action, when I poked them with 
my umbrella. They sit in groups on the balconies and 
housetops, and appear to have a good deal of conversa- 
tion among themselves. They are the size of small 
turkeys, and black as night. 

Mr. Shirley came for us and took us to see the great 
fortress. The governor was formerly in the employ 
of the Mexican railroad, so as Mr. Shirley was with us, 
he took us round himself and was very polite and 
pleasant. It is about twenty minutes' row to the 
island — a very pleasant journey through the shipping 
congregated there. As soon as we got inside the fort, 
a number of prisoners surrounded us, offering their 
handiwork for sale. We bought a good many of their 
carved cocoa-nuts and two cocoa-nut cups, exceedingly 
well done and most elaborate. They make them to get 
a little pocket-money for tobacco, &c. First we were 
taken to the governor's rooms, and then to the top of 
a tower to see the fine view of the city and surrounding 
country, all sand wastes, and the distant hills, and sea- 
wards we could distinguish the dangerous reefs on which 
so many vessels have come to grief. 



in Canada, Wesierii, U.S., and Mexico. 199 

Then the governor took us over the prison. We 
visited the kitchen, and saw the food preparing for the 
prisoners. It smelt very nice. They have two dishes 
for dinner, one a strong meat soup, with lumps of meat 
and vegetables in it, the other a savoury mess of vege- 
tables, with oil or fat and a large piece of bread. A^ 
breakfast and supper they have coffee, bread, and the 
favourite national dish, frijoles or beans, without which 
no Mexican meal is complete. The prisoners wear striped 
garments. There is no capital punishment in Mexico, 
but ninety-nine years' imprisonment is the severest legal 
sentence. We were told that some of the men were there 
for dreadful crimes. There is a law which compen- 
sates to a great extent for the want of the death penalty, 
that is : — one that a prisoner shall be immediately shot 
down if he attempt to escape. Prisoners particularly 
obnoxious to the government are generally got rid of 
under this law while being conveyed from one prison 
to another. Men convicted of minor offences are often 
sent into the army instead of to prison. The present 
governor of San Juan has done all he can to im- 
prove the condition of the prisoners, but the dungeons 
are beyond his power to make really fit for habitation 
He has done a good deal by breaking through the im- 
mense walls and putting in doors and windows, such as 
they are, mere slits in the enormously thick masonry. 
Formerly the only communication with the dungeons 
was a hole in the roof. The prisoner was let down with 
ropes, and food and water given him the same way. 
Light and air there were none, except through this hole. 



200 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

The governor showed us small dungeons in which 
political prisoners used to be confined alone. Santa 
Anna had locked up, or rather buried, Juarez in one. 
There was no break in the walls, except the hole in the 
roof. By-and-by Juarez got the upper hand and put 
Santa Anna in the dungeon, but when quiet times 
came he forbade the use of them altogether, and most 
of them were destroyed. We went into the dungeons 
now used, which are very dark and damp and unsavoury. 
It is by the light of those bits of windows, or miserable 
candles, that the prisoners do the fine carving. They 
soon spoil their eyesight. Very often the prisoners 
mutiny and try to escape, but they have never yet been 
successful. Generally a soldier is found to help them, 
who steals the .keys, probably killing the officer who 
keeps them. He lets out the prisoners and they lock 
up the soldiers, and try to kill the officers and the 
governor. There has been one mutiny under the present 
governor. He and another officer took refuge in the 
tower^ which has a narrow winding staircase, and de- 
fended themselves with a handspike. All the other 
officers were killed, and then forty prisoners got on a 
raft to go to the land. A cannon-ball sunk the raft, 
and those who managed to swim ashore were seized as 
soon as they reached land and shot at once. 

In the afternoon we took cars all round the town 
(for there is no Mexican town without tramways). It 
was a pretty drive, past the Bull-ring and the old 
fortifications and many new houses. We had a pleasant 
evening with the Shirleys, who have a little house 



in Canada^ W ester ji U.S., and Mexico. 201 

close to the sea, where they bring the children for change 
of air. Here, again, our ignorance of Spanish was very 
vexatious, for Mrs, Shirley's jolly little son could not 
speak English. We spent the night in our carriage as 
the train started for Jalapa at such an unearthly hour 
in the morning. Mr. Shirley lent us sheets and blankets, 
so that we had very comfortable beds, but oh, the 
mosquitoes ! 

Monday, December "^rd. — Our untiring benefactor, 
Mr. Shirley, sent his man with coffee for us just before 
the train started at 4.30. We got up comfortably, and 
were ready to change to the mule cars at Paso de 
San Juan at 6.8. 

The gradients are too steep for locomotives to run 
to Jalapa, and there is not sufficient traffic to make a 
better line pay. The new inter-oceanic railroad is to 
pass through Jalapa on its way to the coast. We were 
favoured with a small car and a pair of mules belonging 
to the manager of the line, Colonel Thrirkill, and 
started before the others. There were seven relays, 
and each time much persuasion, kicking and pushing 
were required to get the mules harnessed and started. 
They always wanted to go another way, but once 
started, they gave no more trouble. It was amusing to 
watch them jump over the holes, and where the road 
was bad, from sleeper to sleeper. The line is 54 
miles long from the junction, the steepest gradient 
8 in 100, and the total rise, 4562 feet. Going up one 
does not see the country so well as coming down, and 
the day was misty, but even then the journey was 



202 Five Months Fine Weather 

charming, on account of the beautiful trees and flowers, 
and numbers of large butterflies and humming-birds' 
with whom we made acquaintance for the first time. 
There were great lizards eighteen inches long — splendid 
fellows, quite harmless. Our driver tried to catch one 
for me as it was rushing into its hole, but unfortunately 
the tail broke off" in his hand. We arrived at Jalapa at 
four o'clock, an hour before the other cars, having had 
a delicious Mexican meal at Rinconada, besides excel- 
lent coffee and bread at a little refreshment-room at 
one of the first villages we came to. Colonel Thrirkill 
met us and insisted on our going to his house, which 
we did with very great pleasure. Nothing is more 
delightful on a long journey than to escape from the 
hotels, and be once more in a well-ordered home, with 
a friend at the head of the table ; and Colonel Thrirkill 
was the most delightful host. He had been in the 
great American Civil War, and told us about the 
desperate struggle the South made against the North, 
before she was crushed by superior wealth and numbers. 
Colonel Thrirkill had had an open fireplace built in his 
sitting-room, probably the only one in Mexico. The 
fire was delightful as it was cold in the evenings. 

We took a walk round the town which is prettily 
situated on a slope, with a good market-place and club, 
and one or two churches. The oldest church has been 
pulled down by the government on the pretext that it 
was so decayed it was falling down of itself, but I dare- 
say the real reason was that great treasures were said 
to be hidden there. Many iron pots were discovered 



in Canada, JVestei^n U.S., and Mexico. 203 

embedded in the walls, but all were empty. The 
owner of a neighbouring house was more fortunate. 
Some accident brought a bit of his wall down, and he 
found a treasure in coin, silver spoons and dishes, &c., 
worth 30,000 dollars. The pawnbrokers were quite 
uninteresting. 

Tuesday, December <\tli. — It rained all day, so the 
expedition Colonel Thrirkill had planned to take us to 
Cautepec, could not come off I enjo3^ed the fire all 
day, but the gentlemen ventured out to a tobacco 
manufactory, employing 600 or 700 hands, where they 
bought some cigars. Tobacco grows well in Mexico, 
and is often sold for Havana. 

Wednesday, December ^tli. — It was a magnificent day 
but very cold at first, quite a hard frost. We started 
for Vera Cruz at 6.30, Colonel Thrirkill going with us. 
The mist had all cleared away, and the immense moun- 
tains at the back of Jalapa, the Cofre de Perote and the 
Peak of Orizaba, looked glorious in the sunshine. On 
the way down we often got magnificent views as far as 
the sea and over the surrounding country. On the 
north a line of hills extends right into the sea, and 
there is only one path over them to the next valley, 
and that is so bad that, though mules go over with 
baggage, it is not considered safe for people to ride. 
The natives carry travellers up and down on their 
backs. They are so strong they will run up the steep 
ascent even when carrying a stout German who owns 
a vanilla plantation there. This German has become 
very rich by cultivating the vanilla. It is easy to 



204 Five Months Fine Weather 

grow the bean, but very difficult to dry it properly, 
neither too quickly nor too slowly. He dries them in 
blankets by a method of his own. 

Colonel Thrirkill pointed out to us by the roadside 
several trees on which men had been hung for plunder- 
ing the diligences in the old times. They were hung 
on the spot where they committed the crime. One tree 
had had forty-nine men hung on it after a great high- 
way robbery ; among them were a man, his five sons 
and two nephews. After an execution the branch used 
is always cut off. We asked if he had ever been shot 
at, he said only once, not by a brigand but by a man 
he had prosecuted for stealing. Pie was caught and 
sent to San Juan d'Ulloa. 

A wonderful bean grows here covered with tiny, 
almost invisible prickles. Boys collect them in quills 
and amuse themselves by blowing them abroad, in 
church, or wherever there is a crowd. They enter the 
skin and instantly cause intense irritation which lasts 
twenty-four hours. It was suggested we should bring 
some home to disperse our opponents' meetings at the 
next general election. 

The mules brought us down very quickly, they 
can do twenty-four miles an hour. The natives are 
quite as active as the mules. They will leave the 
junction with the car and arrive at Jalapa before it, 
going across country and not stopping, like the car, 
fifty minutes for refreshments. 

We had a capital dinner at the Hotel Diligencias, 
and took coffee in front of the Hotel Universal, and then 



in Canada^ Western U.S., and Mexico. 205 

said good-bye to our good friendSj Colonel Thrirkill 
and Mrs. Shirley, and once more retired to our car. 

Thursday, December 6th. — The train started very 
early for Mexico, but our man managed to get us a 
little coffee, and after dressing quietly we got more 
coffee and bread, both excellent, at Paso del Macho. 
It was a lovely morning, and the mountains and trees 
and the Atoyac waterfall, everything was at its best. 
At Cordova we laid in a stock of fruit at absurdly low 
prices. A large basket of capital oranges, basket in- 
cluded, 2 reals [\od.), ly bananas also 2 reals, but 
this price was far too high ; a pine-apple, very sweet and 
juicy, cost us a medio (2^-</.), we might have had two for 
the price but did not want another, and natives would 
have got three. The granadita is one of the nicest 
Mexican fruits. It is shaped like an egg with a hard 
rind, and the inside is like a gooseberry. There were 
many quite new to us. On one occasion we caused 
great amusement in the restaurant at Hotel Jardin, by 
bringing home a fruit that looked like a green hedge- 
hog. After considering it with great interest during 
lunch, we proceeded to cut it up and eat it, our opposite 
neighbour chattering to us in Spanish the whole time, 
It was very nasty, and Johnny coming in just then 
was called up by our friend to explain that it was not 
a fruit at all, but a vegetable and should only be eaten 
cooked. This was what he had been trying to tell us 
all the time. We had it at Colonel Thrirkill's as a 
vegetable, and liked it much better. 

The day being very bright and clear we saw to 



2o6 Five Months' Fine Weather 

advantage the splendid scenery that was partly hidden 
by rain on our downward journey. It turned cold 
before we reached Mexico. 

Friday, December jth. — 'Professor Gardner came to 
lunch with us, and told us of a delightful curiosity- 
shop, where we got some beautiful things, a wonderful 
old ivory amongst them the like of which has been 
rarely seen at Christie's. We paid many visits to the 
funny little shop. 

Next day we visited the Castle of Chapultepec. 
The drive there is very pretty. It is along the 
Paseo de la Reforma, the fashionable promenade, 
two miles long and very wide, with trees on each 
side of the drive, and again at the side of the wide 
footpaths. There are handsome stone seats, where 
there were often picturesque groups of natives, flirting 
or gossiping. At the city end is an equestrian statue 
of Charles IV., said to be very fine, and further on a 
beautiful monument to Columbus by the French 
sculptor, Cordier. In the next glorieta (or open space) 
is a work by a native artist Jiminez, a monument to 
Guatimotzin, the last Aztec king, who was tortured to 
death by Cortez, in the hope that he would reveal 
hidden treasures. Many heroic legends are associated 
with his name. This pleased me most. It is decorated 
with fine bas-reliefs of historical scenes, and at the 
top is a very spirited statue of the hero in the act of 
throwing a dart. There are six glorietas, and eventu- 
ally all are to be adorned with statues of national 
heroes. Juarez is to come next. It is interesting to 
note that the native Mexican element is overpowering 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico, 207 

the Spanish. Juarez and Diaz both sprang from the 
old Aztec stock without any Spanish intermixture. 

At the end of the Paseo, which is perfectly straight, 
stands the great rock on which the castle is built. It is 
divided into two portions, the military school and the 
palace, which is very commonplace inside, much as if 
Gillow had been turned in to do as he liked, except the 
rooms furnished and decorated by Maximilian which 
are far below Gillow's standard. The views from the 
broad marble terraces are very fine. It must be a 
delightful residence. At the foot of the great rock is a 
magnificent grove of monster cypress-trees, older than 
history. The grey moss which hangs from every bough 
gives them a hoary appearance, but they are quite 
vigorous. A monument commemorates the saddest 
incident of the American invasion. When the American 
army marched on Mexico city, they were compelled to 
take Chapultepec, which is a fortress as well as a palace 
and a military academy. The cadets turned out to 
defend the place and fought splendidly, and almost every 
one of these poor lads was killed. 

We drove back to Mexico too early to meet the 
fashionable world who assemble here every afternoon 
in closed carriages. So genteel is this promenade that 
fashionable families, if unable to attend in person, send 
their carriages with closed windows to represent them. 
Gentlemen go on horseback, and a Mexican gentleman 
on horseback is indeed a thing of beauty. He wears a 
short coat or jacket, tight-fitting trousers, adorned from 
waist to boots with a double row of silver buttons, large 
spurs inlaid with silver, which look formidable, but are 



2o8 Five MontJis' Fine Weather 

really harmless, as the rowels do not end in points, and 
a large felt sombrero with silver or gold decorations. 
These sombreros often cost immense sums of money. 
The saddles are very large, of embossed or embroidered 
leather, with endless flaps and dangling appendages, 
and silver ornaments and enormous stirrups. Behind 
the rider is strapped the bright-coloured serape, hanging 
down to the level of the stirrups. The beautiful little 
horses look almost too small for so much splendour. 
The serape is the national garment for men of every 
degree. It is about eight feet long and four feet wide, 
with a hole in the middle to put the head through. 
This hole is seldom used, it is generally draped across 
the shoulders. The women of the lower classes in- 
variably wear the reboso, the same shape as the serape, 
but of thin blue and black cotton. They put them over 
their heads. Anything more picturesque and less con- 
venient could not well be imagined as there is nothing 
to keep it in its place. Ladies have quite discarded 
them, though formerly they had charming silk ones, 
which are now becoming scarce and valuable. 

We went to the Cathedral as usual, and found it 
magnificently decorated with blue and silver damask, 
and hundreds of lighted candles, in honour of the feast 
of the Immaculate Conception. It seemed to be a 
great social festivity, as we met numbers of bouquets 
evidently on their way to be presented to friends, and 
confectioners' boys carrying cakes, as if many afternoon 
teas were going on. It is a mystery to me why artists 
do not come out here and paint the glorious scenery 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 209 

and the handsome people who are wonderfully graceful 
and picturesque in their bright-coloured rags. It would 
be such a delightful change from the eternal views 
of Venice by sunlight, moonlight, early morning, 
sunset, &c., &c. 

Sunday, December gth. — We went by tramcar to 
Guadalupe to visit the celebrated shrine. Unfor- 
tunately the great church was closed for repairs. The 
Virgin of Guadalupe is the patroness of the native 
Mexicans, while the Virgin de los Remedios belongs 
specially to the Spaniards. The good people seem to 
look upon them as quite distinct and rival divinities. 
The reason of the national devotion to the shrine of 
Guadalupe is that it contains the miraculous picture of 
the Holy Virgin, presented by her to a native Mexican, 
while our Lady de los Remedios is merely a Spanish 
importation. The legend is this : — A poor man called 
Juan Diego, very pious, was on his way to mass one 
morning in December, I53i,when the Blessed Virgin 
appeared to him and told him to go to the Bishop, and 
say she wished a church to be built in her honour on 
the site of an ancient Aztec temple. The Bishop 
Zumarraga refused to believe his tale, so he went back, 
and told the Holy Virgin, and she commanded him to 
meet her there again on the following Sunday. Again 
she appeared to him and again the Bishop refused to 
accept his message, unless he could bring some proof 
that he was divinely commissioned. The Bishop seems 
to have been impressed to some extent, for he sent 
people to watch Juan Diego, but as soon as he reached 

P 



2IO Five Months^ Fine Weather 

the hill where the vision appeared, they lost sight of 
him. Our Lady told him to come next day, and he 
should receive the necessary proof. Next day, however, 
he was kept at home by his uncle's illness, which got so 
much worse that the following day he had to fetch the 
priest to confess the dying man, and, so that he might 
not be delayed by the vision, he took another road. 
When crossing a barren rock, the Holy Virgin met him 
and told him his errand was needless, for his uncle was 
quite recovered. She then commanded him to go once 
more to the Bishop, and as proof she caused to spring 
out of the rock a rose-tree in full bloom. He was to 
pluck the roses, wrap them in his serape, and show them 
to no one until he reached the Bishop. When the 
vision disappeared a miraculous spring gushed from the 
rock, which retains marvellous powers of healing to this 
day. When Juan Diego opened his serape to give the 
roses to the Bishop, he found that a picture of the Holy 
Virgin, as she appeared to him, was painted on the 
rough cloth. Of course the Bishop hesitated no longer, 
but built the chapel and put in it the miraculous picture. 
Strange to say, artists have recently been allowed to 
examine it, and cannot discover how it is done. It is 
neither oil nor water-colours, nor any known medium. 

On leaving the car we found ourselves on the large 
square in front of the big church. Dozens of gambling 
tables, with all manner of games of chance, stood about 
the square, which was crowded with dirty people. We 
saw some Indians sweeping down the bit of pavement 
where they had spent the night under a straw matting. 



in Canada^ Western U,S., and Mexico. 211 

There were many Indians about who looked more like 
the Red Indians of the States than any we had seen 
before in Mexico. The great church being closed, ser- 
vice was going on in a side chapel. A bystander assured 
me the picture over the altar really was the ritratto 
miraculoso, but I think it can only have been a copy. 

We went to the holy spring which is enclosed in a 
pretty little chapel. People not only drink the water 
but take it away in bottles for friends unable to come. 
It is very good water, and so plentiful that an eminent 
engineer would like to use it for supplying the city with 
drinking water^ but fears ecclesiastical opposition. I 
meant to drink some, but after seeing what dirty people 
let down the cup into the water, drew it up, drank some 
and threw back what they left, I thought I would forego 
my share of the promised blessings. Then we mounted 
the steps to the small chapel " del Cerrito," of the little 
hill. The chapel has nothing worthy of notice except 
its fine position and the view from the terrace in front 
of it, but half-way up is a very curious representation in 
stone of the mast of a ship with sails spread. It is said 
to contain a real mast and sails and to have been erected 
by some sailors who being in imminent peril at sea, 
vowed to consecrate their ship to the Blessed Virgin of 
Guadalupe if she would save them. The storm imme- 
diately abated, and on reaching shore the sailors dragged 
their ship, according to their vow, across the great 
mountains and set it up here. The whole of Guadalupe 
is on the hill side, and is a very conspicuous and 
beautiful object from any part of the great tableland. 

P 2 



2 12 Five Months' Fine Weather 

Monday, December \oth. — We got up at five o'clock, 
breakfasted at the station, and started at seven o'clock 
by the National Railway for Toluca, It was a hard frost 
but the sun soon came out and the day was very hot. 
We arrived at Toluca at 9.30 a.m. It was a very pretty 
run. The Hne winds through the hills, following a 
stream for some miles, then turning down a more con- 
venient valley, until it reaches the edge of the immense 
plain on which Toluca is'situated. Then it runs along 
a terrace about 200 feet above the plain and the views 
are very fine. The plain is as flat as a board, and 
beyond it rise the mountain 'and the great snow-topped 
extinct volcano Xinanticatl. 

Toluca is a pretty town, very prosperous-looking and 
full of churches. There is a calvario on a hill closeby, 
from which one can see all over the plains. All Mexican 
towers are prettily built, with open spaces and arcades, 
and stalls selling cheap goods. Pillow lace is made at 
Toluca very like torchon lace. I got several pieces, but 
one particular bit I wanted was on the pillow of a 
woman in the market. She had already made several 
yards, but it was an order, and nothing would induce 
her to let me have it. The Church must be enormously 
rich here. Although there were fine churches at every 
corner, we saw two new ones in the process of con- 
struction, both very important buildings. There is in 
the church ot El Carmen the first organ made in America. 
It is a queer-looking thing, with the pipes in a box and 
the bellows outside. We regretted having stopped a 
whole day at Toluca, for there is nothing particular to 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 213 

see and our time was getting short. The Hotel Gran 
Sociedad was very good. 

Tuesday, December \\th. — We took the 9.35 a.m. 
train for Morelia. About half an hour after leaving 
Toluca we passed the Cerro del Senor, a high hill with 
a church at the very top, formerly a place of pilgrimage. 
About one o'clock we came to a real cauon, very pretty, 
though on a tiny scale compared to those in the States. 
It twists and turns with the course of the river, and 
smaller canons branch off, affording lovely views. All 
at once the train rushes into the open, and the glorious 
panorama of the valley of Solis lies before the traveller. 
After crossing this valley, and through another range of 
hills, the valley of the Lerma is reached, and for miles 
the track runs by the side of the big river. Great old 
trees grow in the water. The province of Michoacan 
is the richest in Mexico ; there are mines of silver and 
gold, great grazing-districts covered with herds of 
splendid cattle and hcrses, much cultivated land, which 
gives often two crops a year, and in the hotter part there 
are forests of valuable trees, both for ornamental woods 
and precious dyes. 

Acambaro is the junction for Morelia. Here we had 
to change trains, as so far we had been on the main line 
for the north. After leaving Acambaro, and crossing 
another range of mountains, the third in the day, we 
reached the valley of Morelia and the beautiful lake of 
Cuitzeo. The sun set soon after we reached the lake, 
turning the mountains rose colour and the sky into 
gold. It was exceedingly beautiful. We reached 



214 -^^^'^ Months^ Fine Weather 

Morelia about seven o'clock, and, by the advice of the 
guard, we took the tram-car and he took our baggage- 
ticket to give to a cargadore, or carrier, to bring to 
the hotel. It never came. Hotel Oseguerra was clean 
and comfortable, but the food very bad. 

On our way a fussy little man had attached himself 
to us, who was the English agent for Singer's sewing- 
machines in Morelia. He was very kind in helping us, 
and after dinner he called to take us to see the illumina« 
tions in honour of the festival of Guadalupe. 

We walked down the street to the fine promenade 
leading to the Sanctuary of Guadalupe. Strings of 
coloured lamps were hung across the road, and the 
promenade and park at the end of it were crowded. 
We noticed numbers of soldiers in the crowd, for this is 
the district where the Church and reactionary party have 
most power, and it is well garrisoned to prevent a rising. 
The church called the Sanctuary was a blaze of light, 
and crowded to suffocation. 

Close to it is a large open space, where hundreds of 
people were lying about, and cooking their food or buy- 
ing it of the many stall-keepers. These were country 
folk, come to take part in the greatest religious festival 
of the year. They were going to spend the night there 
in the open air. 

Wednesday^ December \2th. — Of course our first care 
was to look up our box. We found it safe enough at 
the station, and by-and-by we met the station-master, 
who was seeking us to take us to the governor to com- 
plain. It seems there is a Custom-house officer at the 



in Canada^ Westemi U.S., and Mexico, 215 

station, who ought to .examine all the luggage that 
comes in, but rarely does so ; only now and then, at 
long intervals, he insists on visiting a box. Unluckily, 
ours took his fancy, and nothing would induce him to 
let it be sent to us. We accompanied the station- 
master to the governor's, and he made a speech and the 
governor made a speech, all in Spanish, and we bowed 
respectfully whenever they pointed to us, and finally 
shook hands with everybody in the room, and the 
station-master was satisfied and we got our box ; but 
we had lost a couple of hours over the affair. 

Our new friend of the sewing-machines was waiting 
for us in the full glory of the Mexican costume, spurs, 
silver buttons, and all. The effect was decidedly marred 
by a pair of Jfince-7ie2. He got the keys of the cathedral 
towers for us, and we went up at once and got a splendid 
view of the town and surrounding country. Morelia is 
beautifully situated on a small hill rising out of the 
wide plain. Though a small town, it is the principal 
one of the district and has a large market. The streets 
are straight, crossing each other at right angles, and 
whichever way one looks there is a glimpse of green 
fields and trees at the end of them. 

The cathedral is large and imposing outside ; inside 
the best thing was the carving of the choir railings and 
seats and the organ. We visited many of the churches 
including the little old church of the Santa Cruz, for- 
merly the cathedral. There was nothing particular in 
any of them. 

The Monte de Piedad, a branch of the great esta- 



2i6 Five Months^ Fine Weather 

blishment in Mexico, contained nothing interesting. 
The two markets were almost empty. There were a 
few stalls protected from the sun by great straw um- 
brellas. The shops were closed on account of the feast. 
Our friend urged us to stay over the next day, which 
was market-day, to see all the country people come in. 
We should have liked to do so, but we had seen in the 
guide-book that the market at Patzcuaro was particu- 
larly interesting, and rich in fancy work in ivory and 
the famous Uruapan ware. We much regretted after- 
wards that we had not taken his advice. After mid-day 
dinner we went again to the fine old causeway leading 
to the sanctuary. It is paved, and on each side is a 
handsome stone wall with a continuous line of seats. 
We noticed that the barracks were placed in the old 
monastery actually adjoining the sanctuary. 

There is a pretty garden in what is supposed to be 
the old Aztec style, with curious stone carvings, and 
past the church is the fine aqueduct, lOO years old, and 
a wood with shady walks. The most charming bit of 
all is the old Glorieta, with a large fountain in the centre 
and comfortable seats all round. We remained there 
a long time watching the people, many of whom had 
brought provisions and were evidently spending the 
whole day there. 

We visited the cathedral once more, and left Morelia 
at 7.10 p.m. for Patzcuaro, which we reached at 9.15. 
The only hotel by the lake is Hotel Ibarra, in an old 
hacienda. It is very dirty and objectionable in every way, 
ut the journey must not be given up on that account. 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 217 

Thursday, December I'^th. — A very fine day. At 
7.30 a.m. we went on board the steamer Mariaito 
fime^tez — such a ghost of a steamer, everything worn 
out and broken and hardly hanging together. For 
some time we were drenched by the steam from the 
engines, which poured through every crevice. The 
captain, engineer, pilot and a third of the crew was a 
very nice young fellow who lodged in the hotel. We 
took our lunch with us, a large dish of cold chicken 
and another of tongue. Unfortunately, the chicken 
was smothered in garlic and the tongue soaked in 
vinegar, so we had only the hard-boiled eggs to eat 
after all. 

The Lake of Patzcuaro is exceedingly beautiful, with 
many islands, and surrounded by hills that at one end 
are very lofty. There are thousands of ducks and coot, 
and some gentlemen staying at the hotel had gone out 
in a little boat to shoot them. To their great mortifica- 
tion they hardly got a bird. Afterwards, the reason for 
their want of luck was discovered. The natives, who go 
about in canoes a la Robinson Crusoe, just tree-trunks 
hollowed out, and oars like spoons, have a great hunt 
every Wednesday. Hundreds of boats come out and 
act in concert, forming a large circle, to drive all the 
birds together, then they shoot what they can with a 
kind of javelin, and form another circle round those that 
escape the first. They continue this hunt all day, so 
naturally the birds are very wild on Thursday. 

We stopped at a village across the lake, called 
Sinzunzan, where there is a very old churchy with the 



2 1 8 Five Months' Fine Weather 

oldest and biggest olive-trees I ever saw in the church- 
yard. We measured one that was thirty feet in girth. 
Here is treasured a very large picture by Murillo, a gift 
from the King of Spain when the church was rich and 
important. It is said that Church, the American 
artist, offered a million dollars for this great work, which 
represents the entombment of our Lord, but nothing 
could induce the natives, who are very proud of their 
picture, to part with it. When at one time they thought 
it was going to be sold and sent away, they mounted 
guard round the church to prevent its removal. It is 
very powerfully painted, but, so far as one can see in 
the dim light of the sacristy, it is very dull, sober 
colouring for Murillo. There was a very early picture 
in the church itself, with a kind of shutter to close over 
it and only leave the faces exposed. At the back of the 
main altar there was some fine hammered silver work, 
also very old. 

On our way back to the boat we entered a cottage to 
see the pretty common pottery made. The woman 
made it very rapidly. The clay is red and takes a fine 
glaze, and they make very pretty, as well as funny 
shapes, and decorate them with black and white, and 
scratch designs on them. We bought six pieces for 
seventeen cents. 

After a very pleasant day on the lake we got back 
to the hotel at 5.30, and had a very bad supper. We 
afterwards met a Mr. Roberts from New Orleans, con- 
ductor on the Guadalahara railway, who had been in 
this neighbourhood and had learnt that there was a 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 219 

great Aztec king, named Calzontzin, who had ruled 
over the Sinzunzan district^ buried in the village, and 
great treasures were supposed to be buried with him. 
Mr. Roberts and some of his friends clubbed together to 
dig up his Majesty, and, after going some feet into the 
ground, the labourers came to enormous stone slabs, 
which were raised, and under them was found the body 
of the king, very well preserved, but it fell to pieces as 
soon as it was touched. There were no treasures with 
him, and when they wished to dig deeper the Govern- 
ment interfered, so all their money was wasted. Mr. 
Roberts gave me a fragment of the old king's clothes, 
two of his teeth, a little head like those we got at 
Cholula, and some horn rings and one of silver, from 
chains of rings that were with the body. All these 
things were taken from the grave. If we had known 
when at Sinzunzan^ we would have visited the spot. 

Friday, December lA^tJi. — We set off with our pockets 
full of money for the Patzcuaro weekly market, of 
which the guide-book had promised such great things. 
We found absolutely nothing to buy ! It was a large 
market, but only of fruit, vegetables, matting, common 
pottery, and imported manufactured articles. A man 
took us to his house to show us some very elaborate 
feather-work pictures, large landscapes. They were 
curious, but very ugly. The colours of the feathers 
were not suitable for landscapes. We walked the two 
and a half miles from the lake to the town, as it was a 
terrible road to drive over, and the only available 
carriage was broken, and tied up with string in all 



2 20 Five Months' Fine Weather 

directions. The Americans at the hotel charged us 
strictly not to return after dark, which was hardly likely 
as we started at 8.30 a.m., and they advised us anyhow 
to take a gun. One might as well take a gun along the 
Bayswater Road. A merrier, friendlier people I never 
saw. They were all laughing and chattering as they 
passed in shoals along the road, and most of them 
greeted us, and remarked that we were " Ingles." It 
was delightful to see how amiable and courteous they 
were with each other. The way a Mexican dism.isses a 
beggar is characteristic of the people. He does not say, 
'' Go away, you lazy rascal ; you ought to be made to 
work," but he smiles sweetly upon the beggar, and says, 
" Perdonite, por Dios," (" Forgive me, for the love of 
God.") The effect is the same, but with less friction. 
We had a most amusing walk to the town, and on our 
return the glorious view over the lake made up for the 
absence of the people. There is nothing in the town 
specially worthy of a visit, though it is pretty, as all the 
towns are, and the hotel seemed better than ours. After 
our return we sat a long time on the balcony of the 
hotel watching the people return from the market and 
embark in their primitive canoes for home. Patzcuaro 
Lake is wonderfully pretty, and well worth the discom- 
fort one has to put up with. Probably a better hotel 
will be started now that the line is open. 

Saturday, December i ^tJi. — We had a starlight walk to 
our train, which started at 5 a.m. It was very cold 
until the sun came out. After that the day was delight- 
ful. Had it not been for the kindness of the conductor, 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 221 

Mr. Murray, a Canadian, we should not have got away, 
for the luggage-clerk said our box had come too late, it 
ought to have been there an hour before. We had to 
wait at Acambaro from 10.30 to 4.35. We walked 
through the very pretty town, and visited some churches, 
the finest and handsomest being San Francisco, which 
contains two large fine Chinese vases in the sacristy, one 
converted into a filter. The rest of the time we spent 
sitting on the benches that surrounded the fountain in 
the large garden of the Plaza Mayor, watching the 
people fetch water for their household consumption. 
All the water is carried by hand. Every town has its 
own peculiar fashion of carrying water, that is the 
professional water-carrier. The poor people fetch their 
own, children often bringing quite large jars to fill that 
seem much too heavy for them to carry. Each person 
drank what he wanted before filling the great earthen- 
ware vessels of all shapes and sizes. Though we did no5 
see a person in Acambaro who appeared to have a penny 
to spare, there was an ice-vendor very busy. The cry, 
"Nieve, Nieve," is rarely silent in Mexican towns. 

We got on to Celaya that evening, and put up at 
Hotel Solis. I think we should have done better at the 
other hotel ; we could not well have done worse. Our 
room was about twenty-five feet square, and had no 
window or ventilation of any kind, except the door, 
which was not very large. The smell was most un- 
pleasant. Edward dragged my bed close to the door, 
which we left open, so I slept quite well. We walked 
round the town after supper, and saw some magnificent 



222 



Five Months' Fine Weather 



churches, one especially looked very fine in the moon- 
light. The streets were full of people selling fruit and 
food of different kinds, and each little stall had a light 
made by a small fire in a brazier stuck on the end of a 
strong stick. These fires quite lighted up the streets, 
and made a warm glow on the lower part of the churches, 
while the cold blue light of the moon illuminated the 
upper part, and caught the tiles on the domes. 

Sunday, December i6th. — Owing to the stupidity of 
the hotel servant, we were up far too early, and had to 
wait a long time for our train. We tried to get some 
coffee at the station, but found it too bad to drink. 
This is far from the coffee-growing country. 

We arrived at Irapuato at 6.30 a.m., and had to wait 
two hours for the Guadalahara train, so we took the 
tram-car to the town, which is some way from the 
station, and tried to get some coffee in the market, 
which was being held in the great open space opposite 
the big church, and in the broad, principal street. The 
coffee was very bad, so we went to the Hotel del Ferro 
Carril, where we got a very fair meal. It appeared to 
be a much better hotel than that at Celaya, and is kept 
by a Havana Englishman. The town is full of beautiful 
churches, and is worthy of a longer visit than we made. 
Strawberries are said to be ripe here all the year round. 
We bought some at the station which were not fit to eat. 

The journey to Guadalahara is not interesting, mostly 
over flat low-lying land. We got a very bad lunch in 
the middle of the day in a hut made out of old sleepers.. 
The natives crowded round to watch the animals feed, 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 223 

and peered in through every crack and cranny in the 
walls. This line is only just completed ; it was opened 
last May, and is a source of great excitement and 
astonishment to the natives. When we arrived at 
Guadalahara at 6 p.m., the station was densely packed 
with well-to-do people, who had come to see the train 
arrive. Half a mile out carriages and gentlemen on 
horseback were waiting to see the wonder. We had 
quite a struggle to get away. We engaged a man to 
take our box to a cab, but he set off direct to the hotel 
with it at a tremendous pace, and we had to tear after 
him, for when one of these men gets a load to carry he 
runs, and the heavier it is the faster he goes. We were 
delighted to meet an hotel servant, and set him to pursue 
the box, while we followed quietly. The dust was dreadful. 
The hotel was quite good — Hotel Cosmopolita. 

Monday, December lyth. — The official in charge of 
the station lent us one of their people, a Mexican, who 
spoke English, to show us round and interpret for us. 
Our first excursion was to San Pedro, along the fashion- 
able drive. Guadalahara is a social centre, many country 
people have houses there, and come in for the wet 
season. The self-taught artist, Panduro, lives at San 
Pedro, and it is also the centre of the pottery manu- 
facture for which Guadalahara is famous. It excels all 
other native pottery, and is remarkable for its brilliant 
colouring and decorations in silver and gold. We 
bought a quantity of it for 25 dollars. Panduro works 
in clay, but he does not make vases and jars. He 
makes figures, water-carriers, men on horseback, groups, 



224 F^^^^ Months Fine Weather 

&c., and his fame is principally owing to his portrait 
busts, which are three or four inches high, and very 
clever. He did Edward and me ; both excellent 
likenesses. Panduro is a very intelligent-looking man, 
with full dark eyes, and a heavy crop of dark hair. He 
was at work in a shed when we arrived, but he took us 
to his bedroom for Edward's first sitting. It was a 
large room, beautifully clean. His serape spread on 
the bed for a quilt, and a picture of Our Lady of 
Guadalupe on the wall. In working he holds the lump 
of clay in his left hand and fashions it with his fingers, and 
with small bits of wood and iron sharpened to a point. 
Another excellent figure-maker is Pedro Zumiga. 

There is no hotel at San Pedro, so we went into 
a little eating-house for lunch, where the woman was 
busy cooking and sending out meals, with the help of 
a servant. She only had a fire in a brazier, on which 
they put everything to cook in little pots and squatted 
by it, keeping up the fire with fans, and when there was 
nothing else to cook the servant made tortillas. Seeing 
we were people of note, and should require delicacies 
out of the ordinary way, she sent for some meat, 
curious fragments of some unknown animal, and eggs 
and sugar, and set to work to prepare our meal. It 
was all very nasty and very amusing. Unfortunately 
the husband came in quite drunk, and was put in a 
chair, where he went off to sleep at once. After 
finishing our shopping, we took the tram-car back to 
Guadalahara. After dinner we went to the Plaza 
Mayor, where the band was playing. 



in Canada ^ Western U.S., and ]\Iexico. 225 

Tuesday, December iZtJi. — Every day during our short 
stay in Guadalahara, Panduro came in and worked on 
the busts. He had recently returned from a two 
months' visit to Mexico City, where he had been em- 
ployed by President Diaz at lOO dollars a month and 
all expenses, to make busts of his family and friends. 
There was some talk of sending him to the French 
exhibition. 

Guadalahara is a very handsome town, but looks too 
new to be so interesting as many others. It is ex- 
tremely prosperous, being the centre of a rich district. 
The climate is said to be perfection, and certainly was 
so during our visit. It is warmer than Mexico City, 
being 700 feet lower. Our Mexican friend took us 
round the shops and to the prison, which is very large, 
accommodating 1 100 prisoners. The building is very 
peculiar, and is made to suit the system of government, 
which is strictly Republican. On the ground-floor are 
long corridors, having on each side cells, fifteen feet by 
twenty feet. Each prisoner has a cell to himself. These 
corridors meet in three large courtyards, one for those 
who are awaiting their trial, one for men, and one for 
women. In the daytime the prisoners work together, 
and they are turned into the courtyards for an hour 
every evening for recreation. On this level there are 
no paid officials whatever. Order is kept by managers 
chosen from amongst the prisoners, generally men of a 
better class than the bulk or of more respectable ante- 
cedents. These managers are armed with clubs. If 
they do well, they get their term of imprisonment cur- 

Q 



2 26 Rive Months'' Fine W eat he 7' 

tailed. One of the managers was a gentleman who had 
been rudely treated and struck by a police officer. He 
waylaid him next day and killed him. He was taken, 
tried, and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. 
On the flat roof that covers the cells and forms long 
terraces commanding the courtyards and windows, and 
quite inaccessible from below, are stationed sentinels 
with loaded guns, who would shoot down at once any 
prisoner who attempted to escape, or was beyond the 
control of the managers. There were only twenty-five 
paid men in all the prison. Work is done by the 
prisoners and sold for their benefit. We bought a 
serape and some fire-fans, and we were shown some 
wonderful straw work sombreros, that were going to 
the Paris Exhibition. A charming old gentleman 
walked round the roofs with us and explained all this. 

As we walked back from the prison we passed a very 
old Spanish church falling to ruins, and also San Felipe, 
which we entered, and a beautiful old church of the 
Capuchinas with a fine tower. This is the loveliest 
object in Guadalahara. After dinner we again went to 
hear the music on the plaza and found it illuminated 
in honour of the anniversary of some victory gained 
over the French by the Governor, whose palace forms 
one side of the plaza. Another side is occupied by the 
very ugly modern cathedral with towers like extin- 
guishers. 

We noticed several times in the town and in the 
courtyard of our own hotel, a curious pavement made 
of bones. 



/// Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 227 

Wednesday, December 19//A — We visited the Orphan- 
age, a large building where a number of orphans 
are brought up, the girls completely, the boys until the 
age of twelve, when they are transferred to the School 
of Artisans. All the children looked very happy and 
well cared for, and the bright, pleasant young lady who 
showed us round, told us she had been a pupil and 
was now a teacher, and knew nothing of the outside 
world. The children are taugh*^, besides the ordinary 
subjects, photography, lithography, music, advanced 
drawing, and the most wonderful embroidery. The}- 
were making wonderful things for the Paris Exhibition. 

Thursday, December 20th. — Our train left at 8 o'clock 
a.m., and arrived at Irapuato at 5.20 p.m. Some priests 
travelled by our train, one, a charming old gentleman, 
was seen off by about a dozen friends. It amused us 
much to watch their farewells. Besides much hand- 
shaking, they embraced him just like people do on the 
stage, no attempt at kissing at all^ but first the right 
arm over the shoulder and the left arm on the waist, and 
then the left arm over the shoulder and the right arm 
on the waist. There was a lady amongst the friends 
who took leave the same way, but it was the most deli- 
cate, graceful ghost of an embrace, 1 hey just touched each 
other with the tips of their fingers. We took our lunch 
with us to avoid the horrid meal we had had in coming, 
and as we got plenty of delicious fruit on the way, we 
did well. We dined comfortably at the Hotel del Ferro 
Carril at Irapuato, and afterwards walked back to the 
station by starlight, joined the express at 7.40, and 

Q 2 



2 28 Five Months Fine Weather 

were fortunate in getting good berths. VVe arrived in 
Mexico at 7.15 next morning, and drove at once to the 
hotel for breakfast. We spent the whole day shopping 
and packing. 

The plaza was full of booths and hawkers selling 
sweets, candied fruits, toys of all kinds, and great paper 
boxes of curious shapes, meant to be filled with bon- 
bons, and hung up at Christmas parties as a kind of 
Aunt Sally, to be shied at. When broken, of course 
the sweets fall all over the floor, and the children 
scramble for them. Some were ballet-girls, some devils, 
balloons, fish, and the prettiest of all were ships in full 
sail. There was a great crowd, and numbers of boys 
with baskets, anxious to be hired to carry home pur- 
chases. A lady told me that on the Jour des Morts 
there was a similar market, but all the wares represented 
skeletons, cofifins, death's-heads, or something pertaining 
to death or burial. Children were sucking sugar skulls, 
and the stall-keepers cried, " Fresh skeletons ! " She 
gave me a skeleton ice-seller, wonderfully made in paper, 
for which she had paid a real. 

Saturday, December 22nd. — We walked about the 
lovely city, feeling very sorrowful that we had to leave it 
so soon, and might never see the glorious cathedral again. 
We took the tram-car to Tacubaya, with which we were 
disappointed, as all the vaunted gardens are enclosed by 
high walls. We saw the Arbol Benito, under which a 
holy priest rested long years ago, and blessed it, that it 
should never lose its leaves, but be for ever green. I 
am sorry to say it was shedding its leaves rapidly, and 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 229 

was not green at all ; but the fountain which sprang 
from the ground at the bidding of the priest is still there, 
so the tale must be true. 

Sunday, December 2ird. — Again we visited the ar- 
cades, and bought some silver buttons and clasps, and 
some tiny wooden b >ots, exquisitely carved by an 
Indian, who picks up the old boots thrown into the 
street and copies them in miniature. We went up the 
cathedral tower again, and admired the lovely mountains 
that seemed close to us, the air was so clear. 

Monday, December 2^th. — By the kindness of Mr. Foot, 
of the Mexican Railroad, we were run down to San 
Juan Teotihuacan at 9.30 to see the wonderful Aztec 
remains, instead of having to take the only regular train 
in the day, which starts about 5 a.m., and would have given 
us a very long time to wait before we could return. A 
gentleman connected with the railway, who spoke 
Spanish, went with us. As there is no inn at San Juan, 
we took lunch with us, but nothing could induce the 
manager of the restaurant to lend us knives and forks ; 
he said we might never come back. It was in vain that 
Johnny reminded him that we were leaving all our lug- 
gage in the hotel ; he would not trust us. On our return 
we found him very penitent, and anxious to make friends 
again. He would come to us at almost every meal, and 
converse in Spanish in the most affable way, though he 
knew we could not unders'and what he said. We were 
an hour in the train, and then got into a wonderful old 
carriage that was waiting for us at the station, and drove 
over a rough road, over big stones and across beds of 



230 Five Months' Fine Weather 

streams, all guiltless of water except one, where a little 
tiny brook trickled down a great ravine that would hold 
a roaring torrent in the rainy season. This stream was 
theTeotihuacan, and had a handsome new bridge across 
it. There were great hedges of organ cactus, and num- 
bers of aloes and prickly pears. We passed a fine old 
church, much out of repair, and a few small cottages, 
each guarded by a savage dog. We had to take a long 
round to get to the Pyramid of the Moon, which we 
climbed in the heat of the day, and found it a very stiff 
pull, over loose stones and what had once been a path. 
The mound is built up principally of lime, concrete, and 
lava, and soon falls to pieces when meddled with. A 
large cavern had been dug into the rock to see if it con- 
tained any tombs, and a deep hole was discovered, but, 
having been left for some time, the roof had fallen in 
and the whole of it was choked up. The ground is 
covered with bits of broken crockery and obsidian arrow- 
heads. People came to sell beads, little heads, and such 
things for a few coppers. Two large carvings offered 
us were very ugly, and coarse, and indistinct. The 
opinion of antiquarians is that each of these mounds was 
crowned by a temple, and the road, still plainly dis- 
cernible, called the Pathway of the Dead, connected the 
two, while the immense city was built all round them. 

The view from the top of the mound is very pretty 
and very curious, for the maguey fields are so different 
from anything one is accustomed to, and have a speckled 
appearance at a distance. I was disappointed with the 
Pathway of the Dead, which did not come up to the 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 231 

pictures of it. It is not a straight road from one mound 
to the other, it is straight for a long way, but not as far 
as the Pyramid of the Moon. At the top of the mound 
is a Httle altar with a wooden cross. 

We scrambled down the other side and soon came to 
the colossal head forming a table, the whole one block 
of soft granite about five feet square. There is a gutter 
across the table, which is supposed to show that it was a 
sacrificial stone ; but there is not the faintest stain of 
blood. We sat down by the stone to eat our lunch, and 
soon three friends gathered round us, and shared our 
meal. One was a man who squatted down beside us, 
and picked the carcase of the turkey. He found and 
carefully treasured the tinfoil off our bottle of wine. 
The other two were children, a funny little boy, and a 
sweet little girl, who was in charge of some goats. All 
we gave her she wrapped up in her reboso, and when 
we asked her where she was going to take it, she said, 
" A mi Mamma." I tried to get her to eat a tempting 
little cake, but she would not touch it, all must be taken 
to mamma. All three had a little store of clay heads 
and obsidian to sell. By the way it is a mystery how 
the ancient Mexicans procured so much obsidian. It is 
not much found in the country, if at all. We had a 
v-ery pleasant lunch, and were much amused to see how 
the man refrained from pressing his goods upon us until 
we had purchased the children's. They were no relatives 
of his at all. We noticed this good feeling wherever we 
met the Indians selling things. They never seemed to 
care much whose wares we bought ; nobody ever quar- 



232 Five ]\IontJis Fine Weathei' 

relied or tried to get the better of the others. It was 
the same at the stations, and with the hawkers in the 
streets. 

Many excavations have been made in the smaller 
mounds, and steps and foundations of houses have been 
discovered. 

We had a rough climb up the Pyramid of the sun and 
down the other side. The mounds are high, the Moon 
150 feet, and the Sun 216 feet, and there is not anyroad. 
Then we rejoined the carriage, and made off quickly to 
the station to catch the freight train, which landed us 
back in Mexico at 4.15. We had had a delightful day. 

Christmas Day. — We could not help feeling a little 
homesick, especially as the whole of the hotel went to 
visit friends except ourselves. We had the restaurant 
to ourselves at dinner. A man came selling strawberries 
as we were at breakfast, so we bought some for a real) 
5<^., just to say we had eaten fresh strawberries, grown 
out of doors, on Christmas Day. They had no flavour. 
We went to service in the cathedral in the morning, but 
there was nothing special, and in the plaza the people 
were busy pulling down the stalls, and taking them 
away. Evidently Christmas Day is not so much con- 
sidered in Mexico as in England. Christmas Eve is the 
special occasion for family parties. In the afternoon we 
went to Guadalupe, hoping to find the great church 
open, but it was still closed. 

Wednesday, December 26th. — An English firm had 
lent us their carpenter to help us to pack our purchases, 
and already he had spent hours measuring and making 



in Canada, Western U.S., and JMexico. 233 

boxes, and putting in bits of wood he called " tavolas," 
to keep things apart. While Edward went off to get 
money and tickets, &c., the carpenter and I had quite a 
field-day. We managed to understand each other quite 
well somehow. He was very intelligent and obliging. 
At last, after great planning, and fixing, and fitting, and 
arranging, the fifth box was finished, and the dear man, 
who had been kindness and patience itself, took the 
hammer in his hand to put in the first nail of the last 
lid. " In the name of God," said he reverently as he 
struck the nail. It took me altogether about ten hours 
and quantities of cotton-wool to pack the large ivory 
figure alone. That very morning we secured the little 
ivory chorister boy we had bargained for so long in the 
Plaza San Domingo. 

Thursday, December 2'jth. — It was a '^oggy morning, 
so we did not see Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl any 
more, but we got a glimpse of the cathedral towers as 
we drove to the station to take the Central Railway as 
far as Celaya. We saw our driver in the crowd that met 
the train at Queretaro, and exchanged greetings. At 
Celaya we only had time to get across from one station 
to the other, to take the national line to San Miguel 
d'AUende, where we arrived in the dark, and left next 
morning before day, so we saw nothing of it, but we 
had a pleasant evening with Mr. Ferrars, who put us 
up in his nice little house there. 

Friday, December 22,th. — ^We w^ere at the station at 
4.40 a.m., only to find the train was two hours behind 
time. We waited in the station-master's office where there 



2 34 F^''-'^ MontJis' Fine Weather 

were five men asleep around the stove ; the conductor on 
a camp bed, two men on the floor, one on the table, and 
one on a box. Two more unfortunate travellers soon 
joined the party. When the train arrived we could not 
get into the Pulman car because the people had not got 
up yet, and the first-class was very uncomfortable, 
being crowded with second-class passengers, because 
there was no second-class car on the train. It is 
advisable in Mexico always to take second-class tickets 
if you do not wish to go in the Pulman car, for either 
there is no first-class car and all the travellers are put 
in the second-class, or there is no second-class and 
everybody goes in the first. This is often the case on 
American railways, too. 

We arrived one and three-quarter hours late at 
San Luis Potosi, where Mr. Wharf met us, and 
took possession of us, and made life pleasant for 
us during our stay at San Luis. There was a great 
crowd to see the train come in, as there was at 
Guadalahara, because here, too, the line has only 
been opened a short time. We enjoyed our visit 
to San Luis .immensely. It was delightful to have 
pleasant friends to talk to, and go about with. Mr. 
Wharf was the manager of that branch of the Central 
Railway, and lived at San Luis with his family, and 
there was also the engineer of the line to Tampico, Mr. 
Schmidt and his wife, who were kind to us. The hotel 
was poor, so Mr. and Mrs. Wharf insisted on our 
taking all our meals with them, which was very pleasant 
and home-like. 

San Luis is a very prosperous town, increasing 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 235 

rapidly, and likely to become a large place, as both 
the National and Central Railways go through 
it. There are some very fine old churches. The 
Cathedral is handsome outside, but poorly decorated 
inside, and the facade of the Church of El Carmen is 
exceedingly rich, with carved columns, and a very fine 
tower. Near the top of the facade is a curious attempt 
to represent clouds in carved stone. There is a very 
large alameda near the station, and a large market 
where I bought a napkin, decorated with drawn work, 
from an old woman's cake-basket. I offered her a 
dollar for it and though that was quite a large sum for 
her, she was unwilling to sell because it would disturb 
her little show of biscuits. At last her friends per- 
suaded her to make the effort. The Plaza on which 
the Cathedral and hotel are situated is very pretty. 

The pawnbrokers were delightful. I got several 
nice things, amongst them an old carved ivory fan. I 
asked the man the price, and I understood him to say 
doce (twelve), so knowing that one must always bargain 
in Mexico, I was just going to say, " Too dear, I will give 
you ten and a half," when Mrs. Wharf remarked, she 
did not think two [dos] dollars was a high price for it, 
so I altered my remark, and said, " Too dear, I will give 
give you one and a half for it." I got it for one and 
three-quarters. Z^ci' pronounced " doss," and ^/(jff, pro- 
nounced " docee," sound much alike. 

The next day we spent the same way, roaming about 
the town and visiting the churches. We saw the 
people fetching water from a fountain, and while we 
watched them they completely emptied the basin, 



2^6 Five Months Fine Weather 



■J 



although it was pla}'ing all the time. Waterworks are to 
be constructed shortly to supply the city, by an eminent 
English engineer. Like Guadalahara, San Luis en- 
joys a perfect climate, and it is said is becoming quite 
a health-resort. It is more interesting in itself, and the 
surrounding country prettier than Guadalahara. The 
sun comes out day after day with unfailing regularity, 
and even the wet season is healthy and pleasant. 
Wonderful embroidery is made in this neighbourhood, 
especially drawn work. 

Sunday ,D eceinber '^otk. — We left San Luis at 9.50 a.m., 
our kind friends seeing us off. We had a dreary journey 
through an ugly flat country, stopping perpetually 
because something had gone wrong with the locomotive ; 
at one time we stuck on a curve for an hour and a half. 
We got no dinner, because instead of arriving at Saltillo 
at 7 o'clock, we did not get there until 11 p.m. We 
went to bed at last in despair, and the porter brought 
us some black coffee at midnight. 

Monday, December 3IJ"/. — We arrived at Nuevo 
Laredo, where we got breakfast, an 9.15. The Mexican 
customs examination was nominal, and the American" 
officer examined the boxes quite quietly, not upsetting 
anything. 

We felt very doleful about leaving Mexico, which is, 
of all countries, the most beautiful and the pleasantest 
to travel in. The pure bracing air and heavenly sun- 
shine make one feel happy and ready to enjoy every- 
thing. 1 never saw a happier-looking people. 

Numbers of Englishmen are settling in Mexico, 
which is lull of minerals, especially on the west, while 



ill Canada, Western U.S., and Alexico. 237 

the fertility of the country is extraordinary. The Eng- 
lish get on well with the natives, and find them very 
satisfactory workpeople, anxious to learn, and not 
afraid of work. Often the .English marry Mexican 
ladies, who are very pretty and devoted to home 
life. 

Part of the Central Railway having been washed 
away, the men worked most energetically to get it put 
right, going on as long as daylight lasted. We asked 
the contractor what he paid for overwork. " We pay 
them for all they work over twenty-four hours a day," 
he said. 

We had a dreary journey from Laredo to San Anton. 
The day was dull and rainy, and the country ugly and 
flat. As usual, the train was late, so the Southern 
Pacific train had gone on without us, and we had to 
spend the night at San Anton. The Menger Hotel is 
a large second-class house with first-class prices. 

Tuesday, January \st. — The new year came in cold 

and dull. We started in the morning for New Orleans. 

We could get no Pulman car until we reached Houston, 

■where a capital dinner was set before us ; but we had 

only time to pay for it, not to eat it. 

We arrived at New Orleans early next morning. It 
is a disagreable entrance like San Erancisco ; one has 
to leave the train and go on a ferry-boat. There is 
some talk of building a bridge to enable trains of all 
lines to run into the city. The St. Charles Hotel is 
very good. We had unpleasant, rainy, cold weather all 
the time we were in New Orleans, which is a dreadfully 
damp place. The country is perfectly flat as far as 



238 Five Months Fine Weather' 

one can . see, and very ugly. In fine weather New 
Orleans is probably a very pleasant city, but it looked 
very ugly and dirty to us. The main street, Canal 
Street, is immensely broad, 200 feet, and must have 
been very pretty when there was an avenue of trees 
down the middle of it ; but now that the avenue is 
replaced by a tram-line, the beauty has departed 

The old French Cathedral and the buildings on each 
side of it in Jackson Square are very handsome and 
interesting ; they are so totally diff rent from anything 
else in America. It is strange to pass from the 
bustling streets, full of black folk, to this peaceable, 
lonely spot, like a bit of an old French town. Another 
survival of the French times is the expression " Creole," 
taken to signify anything first class ; for instance," the 
mam at breakfast included "Creole eggs," which I 
ordered, hoping to discover a new dish, but the waiter 
explained it only signified they were best quality. No 
doubt it acquired this signification when the Creoles 
monopolized all the good things. We walked to the 
jetty, which seemed to be covered with cotton ready 
for shipping. Negroes everywhere, rather short and 
poor-looking. The policemen even there were Irish, 
We spoke to one, and he answered us in a lovely brogue. 

We took the car to the great cemeteries to see 
the monuments to the Confederate Generals. The 
finest is that to General Andrew Johnson, an eques- 
trian statue of great spirit. There were fresh bouquets 
and wreaths on the tomb. When I was subsequent!}^ 
buying photographs of New Orleans I could not find 



in Canada, IV es fern U.S., and Mexico. 239 

one of this statue, but the photographer said he would 
get one for me somehow and send it to England, and he 
did so. He would not be paid for it ; he seemed pleased 
at our admiration for it, and for Southern pluck. Most 
of the graves are very costly, being small houses to 
contain the coffins, as the ground is too wet for them 
to be buried. 

Thursday, January 'i^rd. — Another cold, rainy day. 
Mr. Corthell, the eminent engineer, who is to build the 
new bridge over the Mississippi, took us with him in a 
tug up the river to the place where it is to cross, and 
then down to where a carpet was being made of trees, 
brushwood, &c., held together by iron bands and wire, 
18 inches thick, 200 feet wide, and 300 feet long, to lie 
upon the side of the river-bank up to low-water mark, 
and along the bottom, which is 150 feet deep. It was 
to be kept in place by heavy stones, in order to protect 
the bank, which the river continually carries away, 120 
feet having been carried away in one year. What the 
Mississippi takes from one bank it gives to the other, to 
the detriment of both. A gentleman of the party, a 
town commissioner, told us he remembered when the 
river extended over the space now occupied by the jetty 
whence we started, and three blocks of houses up to the 
Custom House. The carpet costs 12 dollars per foot, 
and is confidently expected to prevent further trouble. 
"We passed a number of wooden barges, like long boxes, 
with square ends, each containing 1000 tons of coal, 
brought all the way from Pittsburg — 2600 miles — on the 
river, at the rate of \\ dollars a ton. One steamer can 



240 Five Months Fine Weather 

bring thirty of these barges down stream, but the cur- 
rent is so strong that only a quarter of them can be 
taken back empty. Tiie rest are sold for 25 dollars 
each for firewood, though they cost 700 to make. We 
saw, also, the flat boats that bring fruit from Honduras 
and the hot countries to New Orleans, whence it is sent 
north by train, and the curious cotton steamers, with 
the cabins supported on columns, and all the deck 
covered with cotton-bales. These steamers used to do 
a large passenger trade before the railways were made. 
The river itself is only admirable for its great size. The 
water is muddy, and the banks flat. We were shiver- 
ing in the cold east wind, and very glad to get on shore 
and find a cab to take us through the drenching rain 
to the hotel, where a good dinner soon warmed us. 

That afternoon and next day, also cold and wet, 
we spent arranging for our homeward journey. 
We found that none, of the big boats of any line 
were running to suit us, so we took a cabin on the 
s.s. Fulda, of the Nord-deutscher Lloyd. We left New 
Orleans at 5.30 p.m. by the Illinois Central, and 
after a dreary journey we arrived at Cairo at 6 p.m. 
next day, five hours late, so it was too dark to see the 
bridge for whose sake we had come so far out of our 
way. We reached St. Louis about midnight, and put 
up at the excellent Southern Hotel, especially recom- 
mended in the advertisement as " fireproof," which 
seems to be a favourite description of anything superior 
in St. Louis. I suppose conflagrations are common 
there. 



in Canada, Western U.S., attd Mexico. 241 

The pride of St. Louis is the fine bridge built by 
Captain Eads over the great river. The city is very 
large, smoky, and prosperous, quite new and handsome, 
and utterly uninteresting. 

We left by the 8 p.m. train next day for New York by 
the Vandalia route, very rough and shaky. When a 
carriage was added to the train it was done with such 
force that we thought it was a collision. At Pittsburg we 
were transferred to the Pennsylvania Central, which is a 
first-class line. From there we ran at night through a 
country of forges and coke-ovens, and immense towns 
flaring with natural gas. It was a fine sight in its 
way.* 

Tuesday, Zth January. — We arrived at New York at 
8.40 a.m., and had once more the weary business of 
crossing the ferry, which makes the entrance to so 
many American cities unsightly and disagreeable. We 
were busy all day arranging for Our departure, and only 
found time to visit Tiffany's shop, of which one hears 
so much. We were much disappointed with it. It is 
like a large bazaar, and though things were very nice, 
they were no better than half-a-dozen big London 
jewellers, and there were no large pieces of silver. 
Things were of the wedding present description. Edward 
dined with some friends, so I had to go down alone, 
and to my horror, was placed by the head waiter to do 
gooseberry at a small table where a gentleman was 
entertaining a very pretty, sweet-looking girl. He was 

1 The district since drowned by the bursting of the great 
reservoir. 

R 



242 Five Months' Fine Weather 

an author, and she had read his book and they talked 
Hterature. "Do you Hke Tennyson ?" "Oh so much. 
Do you like Emerson ? " " Oh yes, I have read every- 
thing he wrote. Do you like Longfellow ? " As long as 
they kept to this style of criticism they did very well, 
but at last they got to Shakespeare, whose Antony and 
Cleopatra seems to contain the " To be or not to be " 
speech, in the American version. Then the gentleman 
struggled valiantly with Antony's speech about an 
honourable man ; he was sure there was something 
about an honourable man in it, and the lady remarked 
that Shakespeare was a great friend of her father, and 
often dropped in to tea. This was too much for the 
author, so he changed the subject. 

As I listened to the conversation going on around 
me, I gathered that nearly every one present lived 
permanently at the hotel, which seems to be quite a 
little social world in itself. Between eight and nine 
o'clock a number of ladies went away from the hotel, 
evidently to some kind of entertainment, for they were 
most expensively and elegantly dressed in bright or 
very light colours, but with bonnets. I suppose they 
must have been going to the theatre or concerts. The 
ideas of American ladies on dress are very different 
from ours. It is only lately that they have generally 
adopted low dresses at all, but now they wear them 
more than we do. A lady who gives an afternoon at 
home, wears a low-necked dress and so do her daughters, 
and the young ladies who are asked to help to entertain, 
but the guests come in bonnets and cloaks. It must 



in Canada, Western U.S., and Mexico. 243 

either be very hot for them, or very cold for the 
hostess. 

Wednesday, January gth. — We went on board the 
Fidda at II a.m., and started punctually at noon. Our 
cabin was very comfortable, and the whole boat clean 
and well ventilated, the food remarkably good and the 
servants very attentive. The first night was very rough, 
and only six passengers appeared for breakfast next 
morning, but after that we all got quite well, and then 
it was I learnt the truth of the sailor's proverb about 
" the appetite of a first-class passenger." The weather 
was delightfully warm and sunny, and though the sea 
was very rough, no one was the worse for it of all the 
120 passengers. The Fulda seemed to be such a little 
cockle-shell of a boat compared to the Umbria, and of 
course went much more slowly. We landed at South- 
ampton on the 17th January, and reached London at 
nine o'clock the same evening. Some day, when the 
new steamers make the voyage across the Atlantic a 
pleasure instead of the dreary business it is now, we 
hope to return to sunny Mexico and its merry, 
courteous people. 



LONDON : 
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, 

ST. John's hoi'se, clerkenvvell road. 















'^^ 














-:-„:/„. —v.- -^'-^^V 













